My Place In The Sun
by TheLittleMoonLover
Summary: It's been three years since the Great Shinobi war and the ninja world is prosperous, but when a notorious shinobi gang is threatening the peace in Suna, the Kazekage calls upon Naruto and Konoha for help. He sends his best and brightest in the form of Sakura, Ino and Hinata. But things go wrong and they are sent racing against the clock to save one of their own. Naruhina
1. Chapter 1: Mistakes in the dark

**-Author's Beginning Note-**

Hello dears! It's been a while since I've written anything (school and everything else have gotten in the way) and I am aware that I have a few unfinished stories that I need to attend to. But I've recently gotten back into Naruto and I've got quite a bit of muse for this story. So hopefully I can finish it to the end. I will need lots of encouragement so please do read and review I can't tell you enough how much it helps us writers to hear someone's creative criticism or just gushing (gushing is good, I like gushing). So without further ado I present to you: "_My Place In the Sun_".

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any Naruto characters or the Naruto universe. All rights to this Manga and Anime go to Masashi Kishimoto. Any OC's that I create will belong to me.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki stared down at the open letter on his desk with trepidation, it was from the Kazekage of Suna—and his friend—Gaara. He picked it up again and scanned the words again:

_Naruto,_

_I apologize for my lack of correspondence over the last few months. There has been an increase in the vagrant population of Suna—namely a group of renegade female shinobi who call themselves the Dune Sisters. They terrorize my village with their jutsu, filling my people with fear. I would put an end to them myself but it is too hard to pinpoint who are the leaders and who are the followers. _

_This is why I am sending you this urgent letter. I am invoking the assistance of Konoha based upon our alliance. I require a team of four female nin to come to Suna and infiltrate this 'gang' of ingrates and pinpoint their leader, their weak spots, and any ways to defeat these women. I would send in my own Shinobi but they are seen around Suna too often to be of any use. _

_I implore your swift response to this matter and trust that you will choose your shinobi accordingly. _

_Gaara of the Sand. _

Naruto groaned inwardly and ran a hand through his hair, at twenty years old he was taller than he had been three years prior during the Shinobi war, his shoulders had broadened and his face had thinned slightly. But despite the way his looks changed Naruto was still the same goofy guy that he had been, Konoha had nicknamed him the jokester Hokage—something he was fairly proud of.

Pressing the button on his desk to turn on his intercom he leaned forward and spoke into the microphone "Shizune?" he called his assistant "I need you to call in some people for me."

* * *

Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno, and Ino Yamanaka all stood looking at one another. They had run into each other in front of the Hokage's office.

"Seems like we'll be on a mission together huh?" Sakura mused and nudged Hinata who jumped guiltily and gave her a shaky smile, she had been with Kurenai and Kurenai's three year old daughter Kasumi at the park when the message had come. "Yes, it seems so." Hinata replied and Ino elbowed Sakura in the stomach with a sly grin. "That or you got us in trouble."

The pink haired ninja glared and shoved the blond playfully "As if we would get in trouble for getting a little bit drunk the other night and waking up in a fountain—I mean at least Naruto can't say anything about it, I've seen him do way wor—"

Someone cleared their throat and the three girls turned to look at Naruto who was standing in the doorway to his office with a half grin "You do realize that I can hear every word you're saying—right?" he said attempting to skewer Ino with his eyes.

Ino shrugged, flicked her long ponytail over her shoulder and strode past Naruto with her nose in the air "I meant for you to." Sakura followed chuckling slightly under her breath and Hinata followed last, bowing low and hurrying past Naruto without making eye contact Naruto opened his mouth as if he were about to say something but abruptly snapped it shut before closing the office behind himself.

Hinata knew that she should act as if everything was normal—but she just couldn't images of hot hands and warm breaths flashed through her mind and she fought to suppress them. Hinata watched from the corner of her eye as Naruto resat himself and opened up a folder and began to explain their mission.

"You three will be traveling to Suna to assist with controlling the vagrant population—namely you will be infiltrating a notorious gang of female shinobi called the Dune Sisters…" Naruto's voice trailed off as Hinata was enveloped once again within her own thoughts.

_Three nights prior…_

_"Hi-Na-Ta-Chan!" Naruto's voice cut through the night and Hinata turned just in time to see the yellow haired hokage stumble down the road to her. He was grinning from ear to ear before he draped himself over her and buried his face in her hair "Uh, Naruto-kun? Are you drunk?" the Hyuuga steeled her legs in order to carry his dead weight._

_"Hm? Just a little tiny bit," the man hiccupped and then giggled lightly "Shikamaru—that bastard—said that I couldn't hold my liquor. I sure showed him!" Naruto crowed triumphantly, pumping his fist into the air and nearly losing his balance._

_"I'm sure you did." Hinata let herself laugh a little bit._

_"I did!" the yellow haired shinobi slurred "He's got no clothes on and I have all of my clothes on—well—hic—almost all of them." The ninja let his orange hokage's coat flap open exposing his bared chest. Hinata felt a blush rise to her cheeks as she tried to squirm free of his gasp._

_"I think we should get you home." Hinata averted her eyes and reached out to zip up his jacket but he grabbed her hands and swung her around until her back connected with one of the walls that lined the road. "N-Naruto!" Hinata said with surprise as his fingers slid through hers._

_Naruto was staring at her eye to eye, his blue eyes looking a little hazy with the alcohol but also filled with determination as he looking into the Hyuuga's own milky ones._

_"I wanna try something." He muttered and leaned forward, Hinata could feel the tickle of his breath a crossed her cheeks and the sweet smell of sake and some other kind of alcohol filled her nose as he pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was clumsy at first—Naruto's lips moved out of sync with Hinata's and they weren't used to each other's actions and motions._

_Hinata's hands flew up to Naruto's chest as if to push him away—she knew that it was a bad idea to kiss him when he was intoxicated—but his lips sent little tingles through her and she felt as if she were melting. Naruto's not-so-gentle lips were coaxing her lips open until she relented and allowed him to explore her mouth. She had kissed others before—but nothing ever seemed to make her feel like she had touched an electrical wire._

_They kissed for a while—the only thing touching were their lips—Hinata could taste the sake on Naruto's lips and it was making her feel lightheaded and dizzy, after a couple more moments she felt something warm on her waist—Naruto had placed his palm on her waist just under her jacket, she could feel his warmth through the fish net shirt she wore underneath. She jerked away from his touch with surprise but he bore down with kisses again until she was compliant. This had been something that she had daydreamed about as a child—and could barely believe that it was actually happening. So as Naruto's hand smoothed it's way up her stomach, spreading warmth Hinata couldn't help but let out a low moan which only seemed to spur Naruto on, he pressed his body to hers and his hand slid farther up her shirt until he just barely grazed the underside of her breast making her gasp._

_"Oh Sakura." He rasped against her mouth and Hinata froze, it felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown over her head and she was back down to Earth. She broke away from him, sliding underneath his arm and backed away—he had been too drunk to control what he said but not drunk enough to realize that he said it. He stared at her with horror, "Hinata i'm so—" but Hinata had already turned and ran off into the night with a storm raging in her chest._

"Hinata?" Sakura's voice cut through her thoughts like a knife, jerking her back into reality. Her pale white eyes met three other pairs that were filled with concern before she looked back at her fingers which were pressed together in a nervous habit that she had thought that she had gotten rid of years ago.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm a bit off today." The Hyuuga apologized with a blush. Ino an Sakura shrugged and turned to face Naruto again—but Naruto was still watching her. With a little blink Naruto was pulled back out of her thoughts and he cleared his throat before continuing: "Anyways as I was saying—Ino you'll be taking the helm on this assignment." Ino nodded and stood a little straighter, she or Sakura usually took point on these sort of missions. Hinata had only taken leadership on search and rescue missions due to her Byakugan—she preferred not to take point anyways.

"When do we leave?" Sakura interjected into the silence.

"Tonight. You will need to pack as much as possible to last you a while. Also I have these…" Naruto opened a desk drawer and drew out three forehead protectors that had the Konoha symbol etched into them but the symbol was scratched out. "You've got to cover all of your bases—the Dune Sisters have to believe that you are truly wanting to join them—also Hinata—you will need to wear contacts to disguise your eyes, I would tell you to disguise them with charka but I don't know what sort of abilities the women in this gang have so it's better not to risk being exposed." He looked at Hinata again but she averted her eyes.

"That's all I have to say for now, Gaara will fill you in on anything else you need to now, I'll be at the gates to see you off this evening—dismissed." They all bowed and turned to leave.

"Ah—Hinata can you stay behind for a second?" Hinata stopped mid-retreat and slowly turned around, looking in the vague direction that Naruto was standing.

Naruto ran a hand through his spiky yellow hair "Hinata... I really wanted to apologize for my behavior the other night…" He looked down at his desk "That was no way to—"

"Please stop." Hinata said quietly, cutting him off by holding up a slender white hand. "It's fine, you were intoxicated and it was dark. I probably looked like Sakura in the night." Hinata gripped her hands together in front of her, her eyes never leaving the floor.

Naruto gaped at her in surprise; she thought that he mistook her for Sakura? That was nearly impossible since the two women's physical appearance was completely different.

Naruto wasn't sure why he'd said Sakura's name when he had kissed Hinata, he was sure all of those sorts of feelings for his teammate had dried up over the years when he had realized that Sakura would always be looking towards Sasuke. He did, however, know that his feelings for Hinata were no longer that of friendship and he opened his mouth to tell her so but she cut him off again.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I have much to do to get ready for this mission, please excuse me." She bowed quickly and hurried from the room leaving a very frustrated Naruto in her wake. The young Hokage plopped down into his desk chair and crossed his arms, this whole thing was becoming complicated.

* * *

**-Author's Note- **

That was quite a bit of information to happen in one chapter, huh? Well it'll even out as soon as I get the ball rolling, I promise. On average each chapter should have at least a thousand words-some may be shorter but I will usually strive for the longer chapters so that there are less chapters (i.e more appeal to the random scroller).

Anyways. Who thinks Naruto is an idiot-raise your hand! Just wait, it gets better.

Please Read & Review!

-LittleMoonLover-


	2. Chapter 2: He did what now?

Chapter 2 is out, you're going to want to kill me within the first paragraph-but keep reading it's not what you think!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the characters within it. All rights are to Masashi Kishimoto-however any OC's I create do belong to me.

* * *

Naruto didn't sit around for very long, soon he was out of his office and into the streets. He was in deep thought when he caught sight of a pink haired woman walking towards him, "Sakura!" he called waving an arm in the air, signaling for her to join him. She was already dressed in her mission gear and was carrying a plastic bag full of sandwiches.

"Hey is it almost time already?" Sakura asked looking at her wrist watch.

Naruto shook his head "You've got a couple of hours still."

Sakura continued to chatter about everything, and Naruto tried to listen to her but he was too busy examining her. She was pretty—gorgeous really. He could still remember the way his heart used to thud in his chest when he was around her as a child, but now it beat steadily in his chest. He rubbed his chin and his brow furrowed.

"Naruto whats wr—" Sakura began and Naruto leaned forward and kissed her. The sound of her fist connecting with his face echoed through the street as Naruto flew and landed in the road with a thud.

"What the hell do you think you're doing you dumbass?!" she yelled with a glare. Naruto sat up cross legged and rubbed his cheek with a contemplative look on his face. "Huh. It's not the same." He got up, "See you later Sakura." He said absentmindedly with a wave over his shoulder as he ambled off deep in thought. Sakura stared after him in shock, what the hell was that supposed to mean?

* * *

"Hinata are you ready?" Ino asked the Hyuuga who was sitting on a bench putting the last few things in her pack with a worried look. The blond smiled at her questioningly and opened her mouth to ask a question.

"I'm going to kill that dumbass." Sakura stomped up to them, her green eyes flashing "The idiot had the nerve to actually kiss me. And then to make things worse walked off muttering about how 'its not the same'! Unbelievable!"

Ino coughed a little bit and Sakura stopped ranting to look at them, the pink haired ninja paled slightly when she realized who she was talking to. "Shit. Hinata I'm so sorry—I'm ninety nine percent sure that he was just screwing around, as usual. Plus 'it's not the same'? Definitely not serious." She fluttered around the silent Hyuuga "Plus I'm with Sasuke so whatever that dumbass does won't change that." She kept babbling until Ino elbowed her in the ribs.

After another moment of silence Hinata stood and smiled weakly at them "I will scout ahead, please say goodbye to everyone for me." And then she was gone.

Ino whistled "Me thinks that there is something more going on than Naruto just being an idiot." She looked sideways at her best friend who looked confused for a moment before everything clicked.

"You don't think—" she whirled around to the blond with a shocked expression.

"'It's not the same'? They've been pussyfooting around each other for years now. So yes I do think." Ino replied raising her eyebrows.

"Think what?" the man in question had landed on the ground a few feet away with Kakashi and Shikamaru in two. The yellow haired Hokage ruffled his hair, sending leaves flying from it. "Where's Hinata?" Naruto asked looking around distractedly and Sakura and Ino shot one another a look.

"She went ahead already," Ino replied "She says goodbye."

The two female nins watched the hokage's expression fall slightly, yes there was definitely something going on.

Naruto recovered from his disappointment very quickly "Well—anyways," he cleared his throat "Have a safe and prompt mission—I expect reports."

"Aye aye captain." Ino said smugly saluting Naruto who rolled his eyes and she was gone.

Sakura eyed Naruto for a moment before lifting her chin "By the way, I forgive you for being an idiot, however some are not so forgiving." She waved and then she was gone too.

Naruto waved and rubbed the back of his head, "Wonder what that means." He looked at Kakashi for help and the older man shrugged and mumbled something about women and double meanings.

The sound of popping knuckles made Naruto jump, "Dobe." Sasuke's voice came from over his shoulder.

* * *

They had been traveling for a little over a day when Ino and Sakura cornered Hinata. The Hyuuga had been overly quiet ever since their departure which made both of the girls even more curious than before, so on the seconds evening of their mission they were eating dinner by a small fire they pounced.

"So tell me," Sakura began as she sat on one side of Hinata "Whats going on with you and Naruto?" Ino finished as she plopped down on the other side of the dark haired girl.

"Nothing!" Hinata squeaked and tried to stand, but the two girls grabbed her elbows and pulled her back down.

"Come on Hinata. You can tell us—we're friends right?" Sakura fixed her green eyes on Hinata and made them water a little bit, causing Hinata's heartstrings to tug and finally she relented.

She told them everything, the words pouring from her and when she was finished they sat in silence for a few minutes.

"What. An. Idiot." Ino said in a dumbfounded voice.

"Well at least we know what 'it's not the same' means." Sakura joked lightly but she was just as dumbfounded as her best friend. "God he is such a dumbass, how and idiot like him became hokage is beyond me." Hinata opened her mouth to defend him but Sakura stopped her "But 'it's not the same' is a good thing right? It means that he doesn't have feelings for me, right?" the pink haired ninja seemed satisfied with this.

"He hasn't told me otherwise." Hinata replied glumly.

"Well… I'm not defending him or anything but… have you given him a chance to tell you otherwise?" Ino asked and Hinata winced guiltily. No she hadn't given him a chance to speak—she had run away both times that he had tried. She rubbed her temples she was reverting back into her thirteen year old self and she didn't like it. She was an adult and needed to act like one.

"I'll talk to him as soon as we get back." She finally said in an unsure voice and her friends gave her big encouraging smiles. Yes, she would talk to him and straighten everything out.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

Haha... oh Naruto your way of experimenting is going to get you killed. Seriously.

Hinata finally realized she was acting confrontational like when she was younger-yay! This is a pretty simple chapter, just over 1k words and this is almost the extent of what I have written in my notebook. I do have a little bit of chapter three written down so we'll see if I can finish it tonight before I head off to bed but if not I'll get it by Thursday for sure.

Please Read & Review!

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	3. Chapter 3: Enter Dune Sisters!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. And OC characters belong to me.

* * *

The Kazekage and his siblings met them five miles out of Suna, all three of them looked older than the last time that Hinata had seen them—which was the Great War.

"Greetings." Gaara intoned as they faced one another, Ino quickly dropped to one knee and was quickly followed by Sakura and Hinata "Hello Kazekage-sama." She greeted him showing her position as the leader of the team.

"Stand, please, we do not have much time." Gaara gestured for them to follow him and the three girls stood and followed them to an outcropping of rock that would conceal them to anyone looking out at the desolate landscape of the desert.

"You understand the basics of your mission—correct?" Gaara asked and they nodded "Good. You will be infiltrating this group so you will not be able to contact any of my shinobi or even myself due to the fact that any contact could get you killed. The last shinobi that I sent came back in a body bag." The kazekage said grimly and Hinata's shuddered lightly.

"Your basic objective is to pinpoint who their leader is and be able to identify their skillset."

"You don't know who it is yet?" Hinata asked quietly.

"No that's why we need you. They know all of our shinobi by and have been concealing the identity of their leader so as to keep the upperhand. We can assume that they are Suna based and will not know every single ninja from Konoha." Temari said, peering around Gaara to look at the dark haired girl "You will be wearing contacts, right? Your eyes are conspicuous even in Suna."

Hinata's nod seemed to placate the blond. Gaara cleared his throat lightly in a gentle reminder that they needed to be quick, "It is of the utmost importance that you are not ousted it is. But in the event that you are take this," he held out a little leather pouch and Ino took it, opening it and revealing that it was full of sand. "Infuse the sand with your charka and toss it into the air," the Kazekage demonstrated by taking a small handful of sand into his palm—Hinata watched the charka flow from his body and into the sand—and tossed the sand away from him. The sand immediately returned to him, he used his natural ability with sand to place the sand that he took back into the pouch. "But there is unfortunately a catch with this method. The sand will only reach me so long as you are within a ten mile radius of me, so it will cover all of Suna and some of the outlying land around it. We aren't sure where the Dune sister's hideout is so this method may not be as helpful as I would have hoped, so this is a worst case scenario."

The girls looked at one another before Sakura finally piped up "I just have one question," She said raising her eyebrows at Gaara "how are we supposed to attract the attention of the Dune sister's in the first place?"

Hinata and Ino nodded, they had been wondering the same thing ever since they had left Konoha three days before.

"That," Gaara said, the corners of his lips turning up slightly in the ghost of a smile "Is the fun part."

* * *

The sound of homes crumbling filled the air as Sakura demolished another small hut; she smacked her gloved hands together send up a cloud of dust. They were demolishing all of the homes in a small section of town that Gaara was planning on remaking into less rickety structures due to the high number of sandstorms.

"_Seriously?" Sakura asked when Gaara had told them what they would be doing, "They are just going to believe that we just decided to start kicking down homes?" Gaara looked at the pink haired ninja "It will at least get you noticed. Your slashed out forehead protectors should do the rest—if it helps I can send in my shinobi to come and spar with you, please try to leave them in one piece." _

_Ino grinned, "We'll try." _

"Uhm. Sakura." Hinata came up to her friend carrying a torch "I know that there are no people actually living in these homes but I still feel bad." Hinata turned and looked at the buildings that were smoldering. Ino was kicking at a support beam that would bring down a huge barn-type structure, it splintered with a crack and she quickly darted out from beneath the crumbling building and joined them.

"Hey it's okay Hinata—it'll work you'll see plus—" she was cut off.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!" called one of the sand shinobi that would be sparring with them.

"Ooh. Showtime!" Sakura turned to wiggle her eyebrows at them, Ino and Sakura high fived and darted towards the shinobi. Hinata followed as one of the shinobi engaged her, kunai out, the man kicked at her with ferocity and Hinata blocked with a surprised look—they were being serious! She grabbed the next leg that flew towards her by the ankle and elbowed his shin and felt it crack underneath her elbow. The man howled in pain and she spun and landed a firm kick in his chest sending him into some rubble.

Sorry, she apologized in her head as she whirled and used her gentle fist on the next ninja who was approaching her.

The sound of whooping filled the air and the girls stopped mid-fight to seen women descending from the rooftops and from the sky. The wild haired women grinned toothily at the ninjas before beginning to fight them as well. The sand shinobi soon realized that their job was done and the leader called for a retreat, once they were gone and all the dust cleared Ino and Sakura backed up towards Hinata as they stood in defensive stances against the women who had now circled them.

An orange haired girl whistled and stepped forwards "That was some smooth fighting. But you're on our turf."

"We weren't aware that there was a group to take 'turf' in the first place." Ino said challengingly and the girl glared at her and began to step forward as if to attack Ino.

"Kila!" a deeper woman's voice said as a black haired woman stepped from the ranks of the girls, her skin was a deep black and her shiny black eyes sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. The most shocking thing about this woman was the lime green stripes that seemed to band around her arms and legs and on her cheeks. They reminded Hinata of Kiba's inuzaka markings. "That is enough, you're dismissed." Kila blushed red and stepped backwards "I apologize for Kila's immaturity—she still has much to learn. My name is Chiaka."

Sakura and Hinata looked at one another with questions in their eyes, was this the leader of the group—would it be that easy? "I saw you fight and I saw the pink one taking down buildings with her bare fists. What brings you to Suna?"

"We were outlawed by out village." Ino said grimly, she played the part of rogue shinobi well her eyes dulled lightly and she tilted her head so her slashed out forehead protector shone in the light.

"You're from Konoha?" Chiaka asked and the three girls nodded "We don't have any ex Konoha ladies in our ranks…" the woman mused rubbing her chine "… why don't you come back with us—I'm sure our leader would be very… keen on meeting you."

"I don't know…" Ino said and Sakura stepped in vehemently "We'll do it!" she put on an excited face—they had obviously rehearsed this.

"Great!" Chiaka said smiling, baring her stark white teeth "We will have to take some precautions unfortunately." Hinata opened her mouth to ask what kind of precautions when a blindfold was throat over her face.

* * *

**And I've cranked out chapter three-yay! **

**This is pretty much as much as I've written so far. I'll have to try and get chapter four this weekend and maybe five but I'm going to be pretty busy this weekend. So please do tell me what you think and if there is any characterization issues (I sometimes have some issues with that in fanfiction but hey it is the author's interpretation afterall). What do you think of the Dune sisters so far? I'm going to have quite a bit of fun with them even if they are the ~_bad_~ guys. **

**I imagine Chiaki as this super tall almost amazonian woman with super dark skin and hair and eyes but with bright green tattoos/markings circling her arms and legs and her face. She's cool and I think you will all really like her, Kila is nearly her opposite, she small and fairy-like with willowy legs and arms, her hair is bright orange and she is covered with freckles. She's brash and really rude. **

**Anywho. **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover- **


	4. Chapter 4: Cooking with Chiaka

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of Masashi Kishimoto's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

When the blindfolds were finally pulled off Hinata had to keep from rubbing her eyes—the blue contacts itched furiously but she steeled her hands at her sides.

Once the dots had cleared from her vision Hinata shot a quick look at Sakura who was rubbing her eyes before canvassing their surroundings. They seemed to be under a mountain of some kind, it funneled upwards and at the top was an opening and Hinata could see the bright blue sky above her.

"We're underground?" Ino asked taking a slow turn looking around in awe.

"Yep." Chiaka said proudly "We're under a mountain—I can't tell you which one unfortunately. But the boss made this place and we just sort of tunneled out from there." The dark woman gestured to the various pathways that were spiraling up the funnel of the mountain with dark holes set inside of the rock leading off deep into the mountain.

"Looks confusing." Ino whistled but she shot Sakura a covert look, the nearest mountain range to Suna was at least twenty miles away. They had been traveling blindfolded for roughly an hour; Hinata estimated that they were about twenty to twenty five miles from Suna at this point. The three girl's brains were already racing to identify as many escape routes from the mountain as possible, but they were almost slim to none.

"The boss is away for a few days so you'll have to stay here until she gets back—we'll probably give you chores and keep an eye on you." Hinata gasped lightly; they would be separated?

"Whats the matter princess?" a voice came from above. Kila landed soundlessly next to Chiaka, Hinata examined the girl her bright orange hair was pulled away from her thin face in a severe looking ponytail. Kila looked to be about Hinata age but her size made her look much younger. The girl stood just under Hinata's shoulders and looked like the fairies that were in the stories Hinata's mother used to read to her when she was small. The only thing marring this image was the girl's eternally sour expression.

Kila examined the quieter girl before smirking "Why is this frightened little mouse here? She doesn't have any special talent—not like those two." She jerked her chin at Sakura and Ino. Hinata stiffened, she wished that she could use all of her abilities to shut the orange headed girl up but she stayed quiet. Her gentle demeanor would be helpful in gathering information later on and if she engaged with the girl it could risk them being exposed. Hinata looked at her feet and blushed away her temper which rarely ever came out.

But Sakura had other plans; she stepped forwards and looked down at the orange headed girl, her green eyes flashing dangerously "She's with us." The pink haired girl said and Hinata felt her chest swell with appreciation but also worry—Sakura's temper was much more fearsome than her own and the girl's bite was worse than her bite. Ino, luckily, stepped forwards and grabbed her teammates arm and dragged her back.

Chiaka watched this exchange with amusement "Kila, settle down," she admonished and the girl stepped back, a blush filling her freckled cheeks "Besides weren't you watching her earlier? This little flower has thorns; she took out quite a few of those sand idiots all by herself." She turned to Hinata "So tell me little flower—what _is_ your specialty?"

Hinata badly wanted to say reconnaissance since that _was_ her specialty, but without her Byakugan it was pointless to do so, "Medical Nin." She finally said through gritted teeth "I-I also am very able in the kitchen." She added her stutter, a habit that she had almost completely squashed.

Chiaka seemed pleased with her response the woman stepped forwards causing Hinata to take a cautionary step back "Great!" the woman boomed with a big grin "You'll be with me then! By the way… I forgot to ask earlier—what are your names?"

"I'm Chie." Ino stepped forwards, taking initiative. They had agreed on names earlier.

"Izumi." Sakura said next crossing her arms over her chest.

"And I'm Hikari." Hinata finished bowing lightly—more out of habit than anything. She could hear Kila scoff under her breath.

"Alright, Kila you'll take Chie and Izumi and get them acquainted with the training room—they won't be going on any missions just yet but they might as well keep in shape. Hikari you're with me."

Chiaka turned to leave and Hinata waved to Sakura and Ino before hurrying after her.

* * *

Chiaka's kitchen was a comfortable dome deep in the mountain, two large stone ovens sat against one wall, joint pipes went up through the ceiling presumably letting their smoke out somewhere outside of the mountain. One of the stones funneled heat to a flat stove that would heat if the valves were opened.

Hinata was thoroughly surprised at the efficiency that this kitchen had—she had expected something more… primitive. Chiaka put Hinata straight to work kneading dough for the dinner bread.

The large woman filled the room with her presence as she moved about the kitchen chopping vegetables and marinating meat. She chatted to Hinata in her low timbre voice but Hinata mostly stayed quiet as she kneaded the dough with her long fingers.

"You don't talk much do you little flower?" Chiaka asked a she stirred a delicious smelling stew "Don't you have any questions? About this place? Come on I know that you're curious—everyone is curious!"

Hinata nibbled at her lower lip slightly, she _was_ curious. But she knew that if she asked questions then Chiaka would also want to ask questions and she didn't know what the risk of it would be.

After a moment of thinking she opened her mouth to ask one of her more simple questions "Why do you work in the kitchen?"

The large woman seemed taken aback because she stopped stirring and turned towards Hinata "What do you mean?"

"Well… you are a very strong woman," Hinata eyed the woman's muscles "and people respect you…" Hinata trailed off feeling a bit foolish.

"I like the kitchen, plain as that, I feel like that by cooking for all the people here then I'm doing more than if I was out there spreading needless violence." Chiaka chuckled "I could be out there with them—they would prefer it I think—but I like this much better. Just because I'm strong doesn't mean that I should always fight battles the same way as everyone else."

They lapsed into silence as Hinata thought about Chiaka's words. She often cooked for her family at home—something her father disapproved of because he believed that it was below her station. But the mundane act of cooking for her family filled Hinata with a sort of peace—it was always something that she had excelled in even when she wasn't the best ninja. She used to sneak away to learn from the old cook and as soon as she turned thirteen she gathered her courage and insisted that she should be allowed to make her family their meals sometimes. Her father didn't approve of this but it had been the first time that Hinata had ever stuck up for something that she wanted to do so he allowed it. He had even complimented her on her cooking which had filled her with joy. She remembered the very first time he had said that her food was good she had choked on her drink and had to be patted firmly on the back—later on that night she gushed about it for hours as she trained with her cousin Neji who congratulated her. Thinking of her cousin made her eyes water—it was times like this when she missed him most. It had been three years since his death but she would sometimes turn to tell him something and he wouldn't be there and it would all come back to her.

"Hikari? Yoohoo you okay? You look pale." Chiaka waved a hand in front of her face and Hinata blinked.

"Sorry." Hinata apologized but offered no explanation as to why her mind had wandered.

"Anyways, speaking of battles we had better finish up this food or else we'll have a battle of our own in about an hour."

Hinata nodded and they finished making dinner in relative silence.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Hello loves its been almost a week since the last chapter but anyways here it is! Chapter four is mainly a filler chapter but I still like it it expanded more on my two new ladies. The next couple chapters will be exploring the dynamic of the dune sisters + some inner monologue from Naruto's end (since we can't forget about him). I apologize if it's a little boring, but it's important to cultivate some relationships between our ladies and the ladies of the Dune sisters for ~plot purposes~ or something like that. **

**ANYWAYS.**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	5. Chapter 5: Two Weeks Later

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

That night Hinata, Ino and Sakura were all placed in the same room—a small rectangle cut into the mountain—their room was one of many identical rooms in a long hall, it had a bunk bed with a larger bottom mattress and a tiny bathroom (how they got plumbing was beyond Hinata's imagination) and a lit lamp swinging from the ceiling.

Ino and Sakura were sitting on the bottom bunk when Hinata entered and they all looked at each other and heaved a relieved sigh.

"How'd you do Hikari?" Ino asked using Hinata's fake name just in case anyone was listening in—she pulled out a slip of paper and gestured for Hinata to take it.

"It was fine; I liked working in the kitchen." Hinata replied honestly as she sat next to Sakura on the bed and scanned the note.

'_Nothing unusual today other than the fact that these girls don't seem like murderous criminals.' _

Sakura grabbed the paper and scribbled _'Except for Kila. She's nuts.'_

Ino rolled her eyes and Hinata wrote in her elegant script _'Chiaka is lovely, but I keep expecting them to grow horns or something like that—based on what Gaara-sama told us about them they should be more… evil. But they just seem like a group of girls who had no where else to go so they came together…' _

Ino nodded before grabbing the pen _'We'll keep watching to see if they change any over the next few weeks plus we still need to meet this 'boss''_ they all looked at one another and nodded.

* * *

Over the next two weeks Sakura, Ino and Hinata all began to reluctantly grow closer with the many women that called the mountain home. They soon found out that not only did the dune sisters house their own ninjas but also women refugees from the war—from old women to young there were even a few men but not many. Most of the women's husbands had died in the war. Little children could often be seen running about or splashing around in the underwater hot springs.

They fell into a routine—Hinata would wake up early to help Chiaka in the kitchen and Sakura and Ino would go train with the majority of the Dune sisters. The had even been able to go train in the forest that surrounded the mountain. But unfortunately they weren't told anything about the topography or their location. Ino suspected that they were in one of the forests surrounding Suna—but all of those were at least twenty miles away from Suna and the sand would be useless. But they at least knew the way out of the mountain… sort of. They had been blindfolded but Ino swore that if it came down to it she could probably help them navigate their way out—if worst came to worse Hinata could use her byakugan.

Hinata spent her days in the kitchen with Chiaka cooking for the hundred and twenty three people that called the mountain her home. Hinata quickly grew to respect Chiaka despite her better judgment and they grew closer as the days went by. Chiaka never pried though the other girls pried Ino, Sakura and Hinata constantly—bugging them about their story and why they got kicked out of Konoha. Ino and Sakura gave vague answers and Hinata said nothing. They had a story made up as to why they were banished but if they gave it away to easily it would be suspicious.

So two weeks after they arrived something surprising happened, Hinata and Chiaka were in the kitchen prepping for lunch when a pretty young woman stepped into the room with a message for Chiaka, the girl's name was Arisu or something like that. Chiaka walked over to take the note before turning to Hinata "I'll be right back Hikari, hold down the fort okay?"

Hinata nodded and turned back to chopping tomatoes for lunch, after a minute she realized that she didn't have any basil nor did she know where to get more. She hurried to the door and opened it "Chiaka-san we're making fried tomatoes correct but we need basil to—" her voice trailed off as her brain registered what was actually happening.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry!" she said shutting her eyes tight as she stumbled backwards into the kitchen and shut the door. Arisu and Chiaka were_ kissing_! Hinata pressed her cool hands to her burning cheeks; she had never seen two women kiss before. She'd heard of it and knew it wasn't a rare thing but she'd never actually _seen_ it.

She was ferociously chopping onions when Chiaka came back in rubbing the back of her head, "Shocked you did I?" the woman asked sheepishly.

"N-no." Hinata replied as she scraped the onions into a shallow wooden bowl.

"Uh-huh. Sure." Chiaka said and headed further in the room "You acted as if you've never seen two women kiss before."

Hinata's blush deepened and Chiaka gaped at her "You haven't? Wow you must have been more sheltered than I thought. Or is it not 'accepted' in Konoha?" the woman held up two fingers in air quotes.

"No, it's not that I had just never seen it that's all." Hinata hurriedly said, she didn't want to seem like she was defending Konoha but she knew that it was also a fairly accepting place when it came to things like that… at least it was now that Naruto was in charge. Hinata smiled at her hands he'd changed a lot and most of it for the better.

Chiaka and Hinata both got back to work—Chiaka had somehow procured fresh basil and was sprinkling it into the cast iron pan that was now sizzling.

"So are you and Arisu-san seeing each other?" Hinata asked nonchalantly as she rolled dough for the biscuits.

Chiaka shrugged "Nah, not really we just like to enjoy each other's company once in a while."

"But… don't you like her?"

"Well obviously."

"But you aren't serious about one another?"

Chiaka stopped frying and turned to look at Hinata over her shoulder "I'm attracted to her—sure but she's not the one y'know. There isn't any point for us to get serious because it won't go any further than enjoying one another."

"But how do you know that she isn't the one?" Hinata's looked at Chiaka in confusion, she hadn't ever thought about doing those things with someone other than Naruto—she couldn't imagine just enjoying someone else if she knew that they weren't the one that she wanted.

"You just do—it's like you've got spiral vision and you're going to see so many people on your way to the bottom but in the end the person at the bottom is the end of the line and they are just… the one. I'm sure you've had someone like that… right?" Chiaka asked as she plated the fried tomatoes on great big platters and headed over to the larder to pull out the roast for that night's stew.

"…Yes I have." Hinata said chewing her bottom lip "Or I did." She added quickly to keep her cover.

"Yeah. I know that feeling, now come on lets get this finished before the masses come in."

* * *

**Konoha**

Naruto sat in his office staring at the report that he had received from Sakura two weeks ago—he'd only gotten two reports before that went undercover and it wasn't enough. Especially since the quality of the reports were poor:

_Naruto, _

_So this will be my final report since we are going to be infiltrating the Dune Sister's group today. Gaara-sama has everything planned out and we will be breaking some things to get their attention (my specialty). Anyways Gaara-sama says that he will, to the best of his abilities, attempt to send you reports on our progress if he can. Hopefully we can finish this mission quickly since I get the feeling you've got some things to work out upon our return. _

_Sincerely, Team Ino. _

And then there was a small piece of paper included: _By the way you're a serious dumb ass. You'd better fix it before someone else snatches her up. You've been dancing around it for years you idiot. –Sakura_

Naruto closed the folder with a decided slap before standing and opening the window behind him and hopping into the night. It was late spring in Konoha so the night hair was pleasantly crisp as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, the occasional person sticking their head out of a window to yell at him.

Finally he landed with a thump in front of Kakashi's front door. He lifted a hand to knock and Kakashi opened the door.

"Ah. Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said running his hands through his hair.

"Here again?" Kakashi stepped away from his door to let the Hokage in, Naruto had shown up at his door for the past two weeks to 'muddle through his feelings' the white haired man inwardly rolled his eyes. He wished that he would at least go to Sasuke's some of the time but ever since he had kissed Sakura on an 'experiment' Sasuke was like a thundercloud.

"…Yeah. Kakashi it's been two weeks and I've gotten nothing from them. Not even some obscure pigeon with some flower—that is Ino's style after all. Maybe I should send another unit to Suna?"

Kakashi poured his student a quarter glass of whiskey and handed it to him "You've asked me the same question everyday for the last week and my answer remains the same. They are undercover and undercover jobs can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Plus those three girls are more than capable of handling themselves."

Naruto downed the whiskey before leaning back onto the couch "I'm such an idiot I should have made her talk to me before she left."

"Yes you should have." Kakashi agreed and Naruto groaned.

Thirty minutes later after a lot of groaning and self pity Naruto dozed off. Kakashi shook his head with disbelief, no matter how much his students grew up he couldn't get past the fact that they were still kids. "You've come a long way, dumb ass." He murmured as he tucked the hokage in and headed to his room to get some sleep.

"Alright ladies!" Chiaka's booming voice woke Hinata up from a dead sleep, she stirred on the bed that she and Sakura shared and sat up. Sakura was groaning and Ino had jerked awake and was in a defensive position.

The swinging naked lightbulb was on and was shining in Hinata's eyes and she closed them. "Wh—"

"Wakey wakey!" Chiaka tugged the blanket off of them and Sakura curled into Hinata—she was an awful morning person "C'mon! The boss is here and she wants to see you!"

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**A bit of a filler chapter [Again] I'm sorry! I hope none of you are getting too bored thusfar. It will be picking up in the next chapter so stay tuned. Who is this mysterious leader? What sorts of abilities will she have? Is she friend or foe? Find out next time! **

**Also Chiaka is my favorite. Seriously I love her and I am thinking about sketching her out because she's fantastic. **

**Anywho.**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	6. Chapter 6: The Boss, revealed!

Whats this? Two chapters in one night?!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. OC's belong to me.

* * *

Hinata had to keep from rubbing at her eyes as she dressed sleepily in her clothes. It couldn't be more than four a.m and her body was screaming to go back to sleep. But she forced herself to put her arms through her shirt sleeves and prod Sakura back into consciousness (she's dressed and fallen back into bed).

Ino was waiting by the door with a sober expression, this was what would make or break their mission and they all knew it. So when they met Chiaka in the hall they were all very quiet, contemplating what they would do in the event that they failed.

"Why are you guys so quiet? The boss is great I'm sure she'll love you guys!" Chiaka enthused as they walked down the hall and through the mountain to the big meeting room that was directly underneath the open funnel of the mountain. Everyone was gathered there, bright eyed and bushy tailed as they stood in a semicircle around a woman.

She was slender and willowy with long green hair that came past her waist, her forehead protector was from Suna but it was slashed out. Her black eyes were sparkling as she smiled and laughed with the ladies around her and the pressure in Hinata's chest alleviated slightly. She didn't seem so bad—in fact none of the women who surrounded them were inherently bad. It baffled Hinata that they would pillage and burn things down when they just seemed to coexist so easily with their surroundings.

"Rizu!" Chiaka waved her arms to get the attention of the green haired woman, Chiaka's eyes were sparkling in a way that Hinata had never seen and realization clicked into place. Was this Chiaka's special person? But if they were so close why was Chiaka kissing Arisu?

Rizu's voice snapped Hinata out of her thoughts "Are these the girls you sent the message about Chi?" she stepped away from the crowd and gave each girl a once over.

"Yep. Meet Chie, Izumi and Hikari." Chiaka said putting a hand on top of each girl's head as she introduced them. Rizu smiled widely at them and Ino and Sakura looked at each other in confusion. This was the boss? The person who was the leader of the most notorious gangs in Suna?

"Hi. Sorry I've been away for the last couple of weeks, but y'know duty calls. I'm Rizu and I run this place."

She held out her hand and Ino stepped forward to take it but was stopped when a shock reverberated throughout the room like a wave of sound. All of the women around Sakura, Ino and Hinata dropped to the floor—Chiaka and Rizu included.

"Wha—" Sakura's hand slid into her thigh pouch and she pulled out a kunai as the three of them shifted back to back into a defensive stance.

"Ah, ah, ah. Come now ladies." A silky voice came from the shadow as a shiny wire shot out and yanked the kunai from Sakura's grasp.

"We're all friends here, right?" a tall woman stepped out of the shadows; she had a thin angular face and silky blond hair that curled around her face. Hinata's eyes were immediately drawn to the other woman's eyes and she gasped with horror one eye had a byakugan in it—the other was black. She had only seen this once with Naruto's sensei Kakashi. But the byakugan eye was closely guarded among the Hyuuga clan.

"Whats the matter little Hyuuga?" the woman asked, the corners of her mouth turning up into a grin as Hinata gasped with shock "Yes that's right, I know you're a Hyuuga—your chakra is moving towards your eyes." She tapped a finger at her own eye.

"Anyways, this is how this is going to go. You're going to tell me why you're really here since it's more than likely not to join my merry little band of puppets."

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata asked hoping that adding her stutter would catch the woman off guard.

The woman's grin grew and she held out a slender hand and gripped it into a fist. A thump went through Hinata and she gasped as her chakra bulged within her burning the contacts away from her eyes and exposing the white irises beneath.

"Hinata!" Sakura blurted as the Hyuuga swayed, breaking their cover.

Hinata steeled herself and glared at the woman "What was that?"

"Oh just a little trick of mine, theres lots I can do with it—such as…" she opened her fist and began to wiggle her fingers. Hinata, Ino and Sakura watched in shock as the women around them stood and stared at them blankly.

"This is like Sasori's jutsu!" Sakura gasped and pulled another kunai from her pouch and tried to cut through the invisible chakra lines but nothing happened.

"Close dear, very close in fact this is a modified version of that—care to explain little Hyuuga?"

Hinata gulped "Sakura," she murmured "there aren't any chakra lines—she's controlling the chakra that is within their bodies to manipulate them." Hinata turned to look at the woman "Why are you doing this? Who are you?"

"That's a loaded question—isn't it?" she perched a hand on her hip "You can call me Yori I suppose since you're not going to live long enough to tell anyone else about this. And why am I doing this? Because these girls were wasting their potential just living on the bare minimum while those bastards in Suna prospered. Or that's what I told Miss Rizu here." Yori ran a hand through Rizu's green hair "She was so keen on helping her people that she even agreed to let me control them when I needed them."

Hinata shot a quick look at Ino; this was an unforeseen variable that they weren't prepared for. This woman oozed power as she held all these women with ease—and the way that she had made Hinata's chakra jump uncontrollably was enough to make her tense.

"How did you get the Hyuuga eye?" she asked after a moment of silence.

Yori moved a hand to her eye "Oh this? I got this from an old friend who collected such things it was the only thing he could save after taking the testing on his subject too far, poor child." Yori grinned and Hinata clenched her teeth, this woman was talking about one of the few Hyuuga children who had been abducted over the years. Memories of dark clothed ninjas flitted through Hinata's mind and for a moment she relived her own attempted abduction.

"You're sick." Sakura spat and leapt at the woman drawing her arm back, but before she could land a blow on the woman Chiaka and Rizu were in her way with their forearms drawn up to take the blow. Sakura threw herself backwards to avoid hitting them and landed with a thump back next to Ino and Hinata.

Hinata fumbled in her pocket and drew out the smoke bombs that she always kept there—they wouldn't give them very much time but it would be enough. She threw them at Yori and grabbed Sakura and Ino's hands as white smoke erupted from the small lead balls.

They ran and jumped up onto the spiraling pathway that headed to the opening at the top which was the only known way out. "Hurry up Sakura!" Ino said as Sakura placed tags on the pathway which blew up the path behind them.

The smoke had begun to clear by the time they were nearly at the top and to their horror they could see some of the women beginning to mindlessly scale the slate rock—a few fell and landed with dull thuds on the ground below but others were quickly gaining on them.

Once they reached the top there was a ten foot jump to the edge of the opening. Ino took a few steps back before running and jumping; she caught the edge and lifted herself up and over. "Grab my hands Sakura!" she called down as she held her hands down into the opening Sakura took a running leap and latched onto the other girl's hands "My feet Hinata!" she called and Hinata complied, easily jumping and grabbing her teammate's ankles. Ino began to slowly pull them up; Sakura was over the edge and helping Ino pull Hinata up when a hand latched onto her ankle—savagely yanking her down. Sakura and Ino barely held on as Hinata looked down with horror as Chiaka yanked on her ankle trying to pull her down.

"I'm sorry Chiaka-san!" Hinata apologized before she pulled her free leg up and thrusted it downwards, smashing it into Chiaka's face. Chiaka made no noise but detached herself from Hinata's ankle and Sakura and Ino tugged her over the edge.

Hinata thanked them and looked around at their surroundings; she could see above the trees and could see the desert of Suna in the distance. They needed to make it into the range where the sand would reach the Kazekage.

"We have to get going." Ino said and they began to slide down the soft dirt of the mountain, this was Hinata's first time looking at the mountain from the outside. There were very few trees dotting the side of it and it was covered with soft brown dirt that almost looked like sand. They slid easily down the mountain on their heels and soon they were at the bottom of it. They headed into the trees.

"We need to get away from here," Sakura said crouching down to look at the foliage "The mountain lets out somewhere around here and they will for sure be on our heels," she took the lead and headed into the forest "We're about fifteen miles out of Suna so we need to—" she was cut off as her ankle tugged against a wire that she realized too late was a trip wire—a mundane log swung towards them at high speed, Hinata grabbed Sakura's arm and Ino grabbed her's pulled her out of the way—the log hit something before completing it's swing and Sakura cried out in pain as they landed in a pile on the mossy ground.

"What was hit?" Ino asked as she sat up looking at her best friend with wide eyes.

"My ankle…" Sakura said and Hinata looked down at the twisted appendage. "Shit, shit shit." Sakura said "It's going to take a few minutes to heal. You guys need to go ahead."

"What? No!" Ino protested "We go as a team!"

"You'll never make it to the desert with me limping." Sakura argued.

"I'll stay with Sakura." Hinata interjected "We'll lead them away from you. You need to get back to Suna and tell Gaara-sama about Yori. This is bigger than us staying together as a team." The Hyuuga said decisively as she placed chakra in her palm and began to help Sakura heal her ankle.

Ino looked as if she wanted to say more but Hinata and Sakura shot her firm looks "Go!" they said together. With a growl Ino took off into the forest.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Wow was that action packed or what?! Originally I was going to keep the Dune sisters straight up evil and degenerate but then I realized that wouldn't give the story any depth or growth so I brainstormed a bunch of different ideas and this is was what won out in the end! It only gets more and more action packed from here on out believe me (and you were worried this would be filler-full). Yori is... er... interesting. Also: Fifty points if you can guess who her special friend is-the one who gave her the Hyuuga eye. **

**Anywho. OH NO TEAM INO IS SEPARATED. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? Will Ino reach the desert and alert Suna? How are Hinata and Sakura going to get out of the forest with one of them limping and pod!ninjas pursuing them? And will Naruto ever gather his courage to resolve himself to telling Hinata how he really feels before it's too late? Stay tuned!**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	7. Chapter 7: Go Ino! Go!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's are mine.

* * *

Ino ran through the forest as fast as her feet could take her, her heart thudded in her chest as she leapt up into a tree to avoid another wire trap. She desperately wished she had Hinata's eyes so that she could see where the wire traps were but she just had to make due with the moonlight shining down onto the wires.

It was earlier in the morning than they had originally thought, probably only around one or two if she was reading the moon correctly.

Branches whipped past her, catching onto her clothing and tearing deep scratches into her legs and arms causing her to wince in pain as she tore through the thick foliage. She didn't have much time before they realized that she and the other girls had split up so she needed to get to the edge of the forest where the desert began.

She was nearly to the edge when she heard branches snapping behind her, she took a leap from the branch and landed on the mossy ground beneath the tree in a crouch position.

An orange headed girl landed in front of her with a smirk.

"Kila." Ino hissed glaring at her, by the look in the girl's eyes she was fully conscious.

"Hello _Chie_. If that's even your name." Kila slid a kunai out of her waist pocket.

"Why are you awake?"

"Because I'm special, or whatever, I help Yori keep an eye on the girls when she has to go out with Rizu." Kila tilted her head to the side, a sadistic glint in her green eyes.

"So you're a traitor then?" Ino spit at her in disgust.

"No I'm just smart. Smarter than you you filthy spy." Kila sprang forwards with her Kunai in hand, Ino easily countered using the younger girl's momentum against her as she slid around her and landed a simply wind mill kick on the girl's back.

"I may be a spy but I am a better fighter than you—any day. Didn't you learn that in training?" Ino kept her composure but her mind was racing, she could see the edge of the forest from where they were but she needed to get rid of Kila and fast.

"Please. I could wipe the floor with you." Kila growled taking the bait, her hands moved in lightening fast formations—one that Ino didn't recognize. A blast of wind knocked into her sending her flying through the air and into a tree. Her ears rang as she quickly rolled to her feet, Kila was a wind user? Another blast of wind whipped towards her and she barely avoided it by crouching onto the ground.

"Surprised? Yori taught me quite a bit. More than your senseis taught you I'm sure." Another blast of air headed straight for Ino and she barely managed to perform the hand seal technique making a wall of rock shoot up in front of her to split the wind.

"Oh? I see you've got some tricks up your sleeve as well. Well that's no matter—" Kila's smug rant was cut off by the wall of earth barreling towards her and she had to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed.

"Quit blabbering." Ino said and took the offensive, she ran towards the orange haired girl and kicked her feet out from under her "No matter how many fancy jutsus you learn your taijutsu sucks." She rammed a fist into the smaller girl's face. Kila attempted to push Ino off but a knee to her rib cage caused her to yelp with pain.

Ino yanked the girl up by her hair "You've been nothing but a pain in the ass ever since we showed up. Bullying my friends and betraying yours—you're a bitch who I don't have time to deal with."

Tying the girl up was no easy feat she struggled and scratched at Ino but somehow the blond managed to get her tied up. She slapped a silence tag onto the girl's forehead for good measure. "Stay." She ordered before turning and running towards the edge of the forest.

As soon as her feet hit the sand she was running full speed towards an outcropping of rocks that would hopefully be close enough for her to send out the sand. She didn't like how open the desert was, the moonlight shone upon the sand making her stand out even more starkly than it would have if the sun were shining on it instead.

But fortunately it seemed that no one but Kila was following her so she reached the rocks with relative ease.

She pulled the bag of sand from her pouch and poured all of it onto her palm "Please let this get to Gaara-sama." She murmured and infused the sand with as much chakra as she could without passing out. She threw the sand into the air with all of her might and watched it paused in the air for a moment before darting off into the night. Ino looked down at her hands which were cut and bloody; blood was seeping slowly from a gash in her side—more than likely from those blasts of air. She ignored the stinging sensation that these cuts brought and got to her feet and began to walk in the direction that the sand had disappeared.

She walked for what seemed like forever when it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes when she heard someone called her name. The sand ninjas were there, her legs wobbled with exhaustion and she fell. Someone caught her, she wasn't sure who it was, "You have to go in and get Hinata and Sakura." She said rubbing at her drooping eyes.

"Ino-san they probably aren't alive… and even if they are its dangerous…" and unknown voice said and Ino opened her tired eyes to glare at a ninja that she didn't know. She barely registered the fact that she was leaning against Temari and Kankuro. "Do you want to be the one to explain to the Hokage why you just left the woman who he is interested in romantically and the woman who is his best friend inside a forest full of mindless killers?" she barked at them and they winced. "Cowards." She spat.

"That's enough Yamanaka." Gaara stepped out of the crowd and the ninja who had originally spoken gulped "Go into the forest and fan out. If they are alive we will find them." The ninjas nodded and they were gone.

Ino pushed away from Kankuro and began to follow the ninjas but Temari grabbed her arm "You used too much chakra to send us the sand. Way more than you needed to."

Ino attempted to yank her arm away from Temari but the woman's grip was strong. "Let me go. They're my friends I need to go after them."

"No what you need to do is rest. We'll go find them." The taller blond yanked the shorter one to the ground before looking at her brother "Kankuro. Stay with her." The brunette nodded and Gaara, who had been silent for a few minutes, turned to Ino "I will find them." He said with the same bland expression that he always seemed to have. But the determination in his voice made the tenseness in Ino's body dissipate as she leaned against the rock and nodded.

"You better." She mumbled as her exhaustion finally won out and her head lolled to the side and she was asleep.

* * *

**-Author's Note- **

**This is the shortest chapter that I've posted thusfar but it's jam packed with Ino! I love Ino (I love the entirety of this trio you've got no clue) and this is a very Ino-centric chapter. I was so afraid that everyone would freak out like:*Gasp* there isn't any Hinata in this chapter? But I thought this was a ~Naruhina~ fanfiction! It is! I swear! It's just a bit more plotty than anything else. And you will be seeing Hinata and Sakura in the next chapter so... yeah... (that was a completely random ramble and I apologize). **

**Anywho. Three cheers for the sand siblings!**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	8. Chapter 8: Surrounded

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. I do own any OC's created.

* * *

As soon as Ino's retreating back disappeared into the darkness Hinata turned to Sakura "Are you ready?" She shot a look down at Sakura's ankle but they couldn't take the time out to completely heal it—they had to lure the rest of the women away from Ino if they were to have any chance at all of getting out of this forest.

"Yeah I think so." Sakura, with the help of Hinata, stood. Hinata placed one of the skinnier girl's arms over her shoulder and hefted her weight. "We must try to get away from the mountain itself but also away from the desert… byakugan!" she let her eyes take over as she took a three hundred and sixty degree look at her surroundings. She could see many chakra signatures a mile and a half away from them—also Ino's retreating signature followed by a smaller one. Hinata prayed that Ino would be able to fend that person off.

"The women are a mile and a half away. There is another rock formation about a mile from here if we can get there we may be able to hide." Hinata informed Sakura before moving at a moderate speed in that direction.

They were moving for about fifteen minutes when they heard the snapping of twigs and branches and Hinata gripped Sakura's hand tighter. They were nearly there; she needed to set Sakura down somewhere safe so that they could fix her ankle which was now a deep shade of purple. "I'm sorry Sakura, but we have to go a bit faster—it will jar quite a bit but you must keep as quiet as possible…"

Sakura nodded and bit her lower lip; Hinata steeled her legs and launched them upwards into the nearest tree. Sakura grunted with pain and Hinata apologized to her quietly. They moved awkwardly from tree to tree, Hinata focusing on keeping them both balanced on each branch while Sakura grunted with pain every time that they landed.

Soon they reached the rocks which turned out to be another large a waterfall, Hinata's byakugan searched for a safe enough place to put Sakura down and found it up against the rock face. She helped Sakura sit, and turned to stand defensively in the direction of the forest.

"Please try to heal your ankle as quickly as possible." Hinata said as her eyes picked up the chakra signatures coming ever closer.

"I'll try—but this is a bad break." Sakura's hands were already glowing green, her forehead seal no doubt working over time in order to channel enough chakra into Sakura's ankle in order to heal it faster than normal.

But no matter how fast she healed her ankle it was too late. Several women stepped out of the forest with bland expressions. Rizu and Chiaka were among them.

"Please do not come any closer, I do not wish to hurt you." Hinata's words fell on deaf ears as the women lunged for them. Hinata's gentle fist took care of a few of them and she used her chakra needles for the weaker women—she had to close her eyes as her needles connected with an older woman who was a refugee whom had always said hello to her when she was on her way to the kitchen. Soon it was just Chiaka and Rizu standing before her, bleeding and bruised—they had landed a few blows on her as well and she could feel bruises forming on her face and ribs.

"Chiaka-san… please." Hinata said crouching back into a defensive stance but Chiaka just leapt for her again, her large fists barely missing Hinata by inches as she rolled out of the way. "Chiaka-san!" Hinata watched as something happened within Chiaka's chakra and recognition filtered into Chiaka's eyes "Wha—" Chiaka asked looking down at her clenched fists.

Hinata nearly heaved a sigh of relief but the sound of a blade being drawn made her eyes dart to Rizu who was running at Hinata with a large blade. Big hands pushed Hinata out of the way and the sound of flesh being sliced filled the air.

Chiaka stood facing Rizu, her hands gripping the blade that was jutting through her stomach and out of her back. Blood dripped onto the ground as Chiaka coughed while looking at Rizu's blank face which was now covered with her blood.

Rizu pulled the sword from Chiaka's stomach and turned to Hinata as if she hadn't just stabbed someone very close to her and ran at Hinata again, Hinata deflected the blade and hit Rizu in the stomach sending her to the ground. "Chiaka-san!" Hinata said running over to the woman who slowly fell to her knees on the ground.

"I'm okay little flower." Chiaka said offering her a little smile, Hinata looked at her incredulously as blood poured around the woman's fingers. "I'm okay really…" but the light was already fading from her eyes and her dark cheeks looked ashen.

"I sure was surprised." Another voice filtered into the clearing as Yori appeared. "No one has ever broken my hold. She must really like you." Hinata jumped back away from the grinning woman, dragging Chiaka's lifeless body with her.

Hinata opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a red head barreling into the clearing. "Hinata. Don't listen to her this isn't real. You need to see through it."

The world paused around the two of them as the woman crouched in front of Hinata and took her hands. She grinned at Hinata reassuringly—it was a familiar grin.

"…who are you?"

"That doesn't matter—at least not right now. You have to wake up. You can't let Sakura heal you—your chakra has been poisoned."

What? Her chakra? But how could that be—that was impossible wasn't it?

"What do you mean…?"

"I mean that if Sakura tries to heal you then you're not going to be the only one in trouble. You need to wake up now." The woman's words reverberated through the genjutsu and Hinata's eyes flashed open.

* * *

Sakura watched helplessly as she healed her ankle. Hinata was fighting with several women and holding her old—but Rizu and Chiaka were posing the biggest threat as they attacked relentlessly.

Sakura funneled more chakra into her hand which was beginning to burn.

Suddenly Chiaka pressed a finger to Hinata's forehead and Hinata's arm went slack. Sakura stood quickly ignoring the sharp pain in her ankle as she realized that they had placed the Hyuuga under a genjustu that she should have been able to break. Who are these people? She wondered as she ran for her friend. But it was too late—Rizu had pulled out a long sword that was glowing with a strange red chakra, not unlike Naruto's Kyuubi chakra—and ran it through Hinata's side.

Sakura's scream filled the air as she barreled into Rizu who flailed lifelessly before thumping into the ground. Chiaka, who had been standing lifelessly to the side convulsed suddenly and awareness filled her eyes as she realized what had happened and caught an unconscious Hinata.

Sakura scooted over to Hinata on her knees and pulled the girl into her lap.

"What the hell is going on? What happened to Hikari? Why did Rizu stab her?" Chiaka asked but Sakura didn't reply as she pulled the sword out of Hinata in one smooth motion—Hinata groaned in her sleep, "Why the hell did you pull it out? Hikari could hemorrhage like this!" Chiaka shouted as she pressed a hand to the bleeding wound.

"She won't." Sakura said as she assessed the situation with the eye of a healer "It hit her in the side—I don't think it nicked anything important." The pink haired girl said shakily as she rubbed her glowing green hands together "Besides I can heal her right here." She moved to place her hands on Hinata's wound but the girl jerked awake—her white eyes going wide.

"Sakura don't!" she said gripping the medic's hands with her own bloody ones.

"Hinata you're hurt we need to heal you." Sakura tried to pull her hands free from Hinata's but the girl held on as much as she could.

"P-poisoned chakra." She said weakly before her eyes drooped.

"What does she mean poisoned?" Sakura said and attempted to place her hands on Hinata's abdomen again but Chiaka caught her hands this time.

"Don't. Seriously." The larger woman said "I think Rizu used _that_ jutsu."

"What do you mean that jutsu you're not making any—" but Sakura was cut off by the sounds of the women around them standing and brandishing weapons or going into the crouched position.

Chiaka stood, ready to defend them but shouts from the forest stopped her from attacking. Sand shinobi flew from the trees and the women turned to fight them holding their own. Rizu stood like a marionette on strings as her sword slashed about, Chiaka had to deflect the blade "Rizu wake up!" she begged desperately but the sword kept slashing at her.

Sand filtered into the clearing and yanked the sword from Rizu's grasp. Sabaku Gaara flew into the clearing with his sister Temari in tow.

A pulse reverberated through the clearing and suddenly all of the women stood up straight. A dark blotch began to form in the middle of the clearing and the women jumped into it despite the sand ninja trying to hold them back.

Rizu turned to jump in as well, shaking off Chiaka's hand as she disappeared into the blackness.

Then the black splotch dissipated leaving them in the clearing staring after it in shock.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Eheh. This was a packed chapter wasn't it? Ehm it was originally going to be totally different but then I thought-why not make it trippy? I hope it wasn't too confusing for anyone. Basically the genjutsu starts from the moment that Hinata says Chiaka's name for the first time. **

**Who is this redheaded woman? What IS chakra poisoning? What will it do to Hinata? What implications will Yori's actions have on the Shinobi world? How is Naruto going to react to this? **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	9. Chapter 9: Crucial Information

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

Chiaka sat in a small grey interrogation room with her arms crossed as she stared blankly ahead, her nose which Hinata had broken earlier hadn't been healed—no one offered to heal it anyways.

They had arrived over three hours ago, the Kazekage carrying Hikari—Hinata on his sand. She was in critical condition and was fading in and out, no one had said anything to Chiaka they had just put her in this room and locked it.

She drummed her fingers on the stainless steel metal table, they would probably send in their hardest interrogator to get information from her. Well she had news for them—they weren't going to get shit. She didn't even fully understand what had happened and she sure as hell wasn't going to exchange theories with these bastards.

So when the door opened she sat up straight in her seat, preparing for the worst. But when Izumi—Sakura stepped through the door carrying a white box and looking exhausted stepped inside of the room Chiaka was more than a little caught off guard.

"Sorry it took me a while to get to you—it's been a madhouse." She pulled a chair around the table and sat down to open the box which was filled with medical supplies.

"So they sent you to try and get information from me is it? Well I have news for you I don't talk to spies." Chiaka spat and turned away from her.

"Yeah well I don't really care about what information about the Dune sisters you have. All I care about if finding a way to save Hinata. I need to find a way to save Hinata." The exhausted determination in Sakura's voice tugged on Chiaka's heartstrings as an image of the girl's face popped into her head. The kid was always willing to be helpful and do more than her share; she had really liked the girl. But the girl was also a spy. _But that doesn't explain why Rizu would stab her and use_ that_ jutsu. Rizu promised me she would never use that again. _Chiaka's thoughts were whirling, _In fact why were we out there in the first place? _Chiaka fought to remember but she was hitting a brick wall.

"Chiaka. I've looked in all of the medical volumes here and Chakra poisoning is barely ever mentioned. Please. I'm drowning here." Sakura asked desperately as she gathered chakra in her palm, it glowed green and she pressed it to Chiaka's nose which immediately felt better "I can't even _heal_ Hinata at this point and I need to know how to treat her."

"Why should I help you? I'm a prisoner remember? In fact how do I even know that Hik—Hinata wasn't asking to get stabbed huh? So please tell me something, why the hell were we all out in that clearing? Huh?" Chiaka grimaced as the bones of her nose knit back together and Sakura drew her hand back.

"You want to know what the hell is going on? Great fill me in on what you know so far." Sakura launched into the big story throwing Chiaka into even more confusion.

"What do you mean assassination attempts? The Dune Sisters aren't into that kind of thing—the most we do is steal but that's more out of necessity than anything." And who was this Yori person? Why hadn't Rizi told her anything about her? Chiaka's heart hurt even thinking about the fact that the person she trusted the most in the world didn't trust her. "I don't believe you. You're just trying to get me to divulge information so you can save your precious Hinata."

Sakura stood, left, and then came back minutes later with an armful of files "Why don't you read these and think about what I just told you because if you haven't realized it yet, I have a girl upstairs dying because your leader stabbed her through the abdomen and poisoned her." Sakura turned to leave taking the medical supplies with her "Oh, and I would decide soon because the Hokage is coming and I don't think he'd appreciate the girl he cares for dying because you were too busy protecting the bitch who stabbed her." Sakura turned and left without another word, leaving Chiaka to flip through the files by herself.

* * *

**_Somewhere between Konoha and Suna._**

Naruto leapt through the trees followed by several of Konoha's best and brightest: Kakashi, Sasuke, Shikamari, Kiba, Tenten, Kurenai and Shino were all trying their best to keep up with the Hokage.

"_Naruto-sama?" Shizune's voice came from the other side of the door as she knocked. _

"_Yeah?" Naruto asked, her was creating a house out of playing cards. _

"_A messenger is here. From Suna." Naruto sat up abruptly knocking the cards over "Ah! Send him in!" Was Hinata coming back soon? _

_The door opened and Temari stood in the door way, sweat made her brow shine under the bright lights and a sinking feeling filled Naruto's stomach. _

"_What is it?" Naruto asked standing as Shizune helped the woman to the sofa that sat on the far wall of his office. _

"_I have a message from Gaara." She puffed and handed him a rolled up scroll. _

_Naruto,_

_The mission was not successful. I apologize for dragging your Shinobi into this…_

_The note dropped from his hand as Naruto stood there in shock for a moment before snapping into action. "Shizune! I need you to get together a group of Ninjas. Immediately!" He barked and ran for his desk to grab his flak jacket from underneath; he tossed his orange Hokage's jacket from his shoulders and slid his arms into the green jacket. _

"Naruto you need to slow down!" Sasuke caught up with him momentarily "You're going to burn out!" the man tackled him from the trees and they landed in the moss rolling.

"What the hell was that for teme!" Naruto yelled as he got up and shoved the Uchiha.

"That was because you're being an idiot. What use will you be if you're in a hospital bed right next to her?" Sasuke yelled back and Naruto growled.

Your shinobi performed their duties admirably, but unfortunately they all didn't come out unscathed. Hinata Hyuuga has been severely injured and is in critical condition.

That was the rest of what Gaara had written. Naruto shook off his best friends hand and looked around at the rest of his party who were all panting but looked determined and sighed. "I'll slow down. Sorry."

"It's fine Naruto-Sama." Kurenai said, she was pale with worry over her student "We can keep going." Kiba nodded soberly a long with everyone else in the group.

* * *

Sakura headed back down the hall to get the files from Chiaka. She had just spent the last two hours scouring the Kazekage's library for anything that would help with it—but no one seemed to know anything about chakra poisoning. She had sent a note with Temari asking for Naruto to bring Tsunade's medical journals with them when they came, but she had the feeling that Naruto would be too far gone with worry to remember them.

She opened the door to the interrogation room that Chiaka was being held in and stepped inside; she quickly took stock of the situation. Chiaka was sitting in the corner of the room on the floor and the contents of the files had been flung about everywhere.

"Fine." She said so quietly that Sakura almost didn't hear her.

"Fine what?" Sakura asked as she went to sit next to the larger woman.

"Fine I'll tell you. Everything. But you have to promise me one thing."

"What?"

"I want to fight this bitch Yori when the time comes. No one controls my friend like they are mindless puppets."

Sakura nodded, she would have to get Gaara to agree with this and it wouldn't be easy. But she was at the point where she would agree to anything.

"I've known Rizu ever since we were little—we belonged to the same village, a little village on the edge of the desert. Still a part of Suna but not really. We had both the forest and the desert to explore.

Anyways, Rizu didn't have any parents and she just sort of showed up one day and my parents took her in and raised her like she was their own. They were always trying to figure out where she came from but they never could." Chiaka smiled at the memory.

"That's great and all, but what is this jutsu that you were talking about?"

"I was getting there. When we were eight years old I was training at the edge of the forest when a bunch of wild dogs attacked me—I wasn't very big then if you can believe it so they easily beat me. I can still remember their teeth digging into my arms. But Rizu saved me she stabbed them with her training Kunai but they didn't die from those wounds. Their chakra was poisoned."

Sakura's brow furrowed "Those were animals—they don't have chakra."

"Everything has chakra. Everything. It may not be the same that we humans possess but it is there—it's their life essence. I saw these wild dogs writhe and die slowly and Rizu looked at me with such fear in her eyes. I took her to my parents who went to ask the elders what to do. And the elders got it into their heads that Rizu would be a good weapon to use to help them separate themselves from Suna. My parents didn't want that so they tried to escape with us and were killed." Chiaka said the last part blankly as her fists clenched "Rizu and I got away and fled into the forest where we found the mountain and Rizu honed her skills out of necessity—in order to protect us. Over the last fifteen years we've expanded. Taking in refugees and women who have no place to go everything was going good until a few months ago when the Sand shinobi started to hunt us more proactively. We didn't understand why—we thought someone was impersonating us in order to cause havoc. Well I guess all of it makes sense now." Chiaka chuckled darkly as she looked down at the papers that were scattered all over the floor.

"And the genjutsu you used on Hinata? She should have been able to see right through it."

"My family—well I should say my clan's specialty was genjutsu. Most never wake up from the genjutsu so we're lucky she woke up at all. I never use it unless I have to. I hate using it." The woman's fists gripped tightly. Sakura was surprised she had never heard of such a clan before.

"Can you tell me more about Rizu's jutsu?"

"You have to stab the person with a chakra imbued weapon—the red chakra you saw? That was her special brand of chakra that only she could use. It affects the chakra, the chakra just dissipates from her body without even being used and weakens the immune system considerably and trying to heal her won't work since any person who tries will also be infected."

"Okay so heres the big question: How do I heal her?"

Chiaka looked miserably at Sakura "That's the thing. It's never been done—at least not in Rizu's case. Anyone she's poisoned has died."

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Dundundunn! Or something like that. Can I just say that I've cranked out three chapters today? I'm so proud of myself! Anyways. Just a little bit of backstory on Chiaka. And a very angry Naruto. I know quite a few of you are wondering if there will be any naruhina interaction soon? The answer? ...yes. How will it happen? You shall see! **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	10. Chapter 10: Who is she?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's are mine.

* * *

"Where are you?" Hinata called into the darkness "I told Sakura so please come back; I don't understand whats going on!"

"I'm here." A voice said and suddenly Hinata was back by the waterfall, sitting on a rock while water roared behind her. It was a beautiful day and the sunlight sparkled on the water.

"Where?" Hinata asked looking around.

"Right here." The voice came from right in front of her and when she turned the red headed woman was sitting on the rock a crossed from her smiling and waving.

"Who are you? Why are we here?" Hinata demanded—she was trying to sort through everything in her mind but it all felt fuzzy.

"I'm Kushina and I'm here to help you!" the woman threw up a peace sign and grinned widely and everything seemed to click.

"You're Naruto's mother!" Hinata gasped with surprise, she knew why the woman's grin was familiar because her son had one just like it.

"That's right!" Kushina leaned over and grabbed one of Hinata's hands "And you're the girl that's been there for him even when he wasn't the 'hero of Konoha'."

Hinata blushed "No it's not all that—"

"Hush. You are. Now where were we?" Kushina murmured distractedly "Oh yes! Your current situation. Your chakra has been poisoned by Rizu—you know when she stabbed you? You're in critical condition in reality…" Kushina waved a hand at the sky and an image of Hinata being carried to Suna on a cloud of sand flew overhead.

"I'm dying?" Hinata squeaked as she watched herself being carried into the hospital by the Kazekage's brother Kankuro. Her heart thudded in her chest, she couldn't be dying she hadn't

"Erm, not if we can help it. I'm going to help you." Kushina patted her reassuringly.

"How? I cannot even wake up in order to help myself." Hinata pressed her fingers to her temples.

"I'm going to wake you up—your chakra is being seeped from your body keeping you from regaining consciousness. So I'm going to give you some of mine."

"You can't do that!" Hinata looked up with shock, she didn't know how it would affect the woman since she was already dead but it couldn't be good.

"I can and I will." The red head stubbornly sniffed "Minato got to help Naruto during the war and now it's my turn. To help both of you." She crossed her arms a crossed her chest.

"Now get ready it's time for you to go back. Just remember, you are strong Hinata. Stronger than that bitch Yori that's for sure. This poison can be cured and you are going to find out how."

The scene around them melted away and they were floating in the darkness facing one another, Kushina's eyes were shining "I wish we could talk longer, I have so many things I want to ask you."

Hinata reached out for the woman and they joined hands, she wanted to stay where it was warm and talk with this woman for longer and tell her all about her son—she didn't want to admit it but she was terrified of going back into reality and of feeling sick due to the poison. "Take care of my son, kay?" Kushina smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks, Hinata nodded as blackness overtook her again.

* * *

As soon as they reached Suna, Naruto bypassed the gate guards despite their protests. "Sir you can't just walk into Suna like this!"

"Sir!"

But Naruto ignored them and when they tried to stop him he threw them into one of the clay buildings.

"Haruka! Jun!" Gaara's voice came from above and Naruto and company looked up to see Gaara floating on his cloud of sand. "Leave them be."

Naruto kept walking, "Where am I going Gaara?" he called up at the Kazekage who leapt from his sand and landed lightly next to Naruto.

"We have placed her within my compound in the infirmary."

Naruto nodded but didn't say anything else as they hurried over to the Kazekage's compound a large dome like building that was against the far mountain. They were ushered inside and up two flights of stairs before they came upon a door, Naruto reached out and turned the knob opening the door and stepping into the hospital room.

Sakura and Ino were sitting on either side of the bed, Sakura immediately stood and hurried over to them. "Naruto," she said in a low voice "Don't freak out okay? We'll figure this out." She then turned to Sasuke and ran into his arms burying her face in his chest. Sasuke stepped back and pulled her out of the room.

Ino stood and let go of Hinata's hand, "We'll give you some privacy." She said to him gently, her face was covered in bruises but she seemed to be in one piece. She hurried over to Kurenai, Kiba, Shikamaru and Shino who were standing behind Naruto. Kurenai hugged Ino tightly and Kiba held up a clock that he had procured from out of no where "You've got five minutes Uzumaki." He growled and then they were gone.

The room was quiet aside from the slight beeping from one of the monitors that was hooked up to Hinata. Naruto slowly moved closer to get a better look at her, she looked tiny in the hospital bed—she was hooked up to several tubes and a mask was placed over her face, giving her oxygen. Her face was sallow and her eyes had deep purple bags underneath them.

Naruto was afraid to touch her so he sat in the chair that had been recently vacated by Sakura and just looked at her, she didn't look healthy. She looked dead. He gritted his teeth; he shouldn't have let her go on the mission. He was an idiot.

Finally his hand slid onto the bed and over her own clammy one, he gripped it in his own and stared at her face for a moment. "God dammit." He muttered his anger flaring up. "Gaara!" he called the Kazekage. They needed a plan.

* * *

Sakura still had her face buried in Sasuke's chest. They were in the room that she and Ino shared and she had just finished crying, Sasuke wasn't much one for comforting people but he was solid. He had silently held her while she vented her frustrations about not being able to do anything.

Finally she leaned back rubbing at her eyes, "Did you bring Tsunade's journals?"

He nodded and pulled his bag onto the bed; she opened the bag and pulled out the three thick spiral bound notebooks. She desperately hoped that there would be something in there that would help. Tsunade had seemed to know everything that there was to know about medicine—surely there would be something in there about healing poisoned chakra.

She handed one to Sasuke and then opened up her own and they began to read.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**So this was a short chapter-I've been writers blocky for a few days while I tried to work out some kinks with the plot and whatnot. But you did get some Sasusaku if that floats your boat! And Naruhina. And Kushina lots of Kushina. **

**Hopefully the next chapter will be longer, and I will try to start it tonight but you'll have it at latest in a couple of days. **

**OH! I make a rough drawing (Very rough. I'm not an artist whatsoever) of Chiaka:  . /da67c82589ad97119be7065d7f78370a/tumblr_n4k1sjkbgI1qel30zo1_ **

**She is however more muscular (think an Amazon woman) but her markings are all in place. But yeah thats how I imagine her in my head-to bad it doesn't translate well on my paper. (haha). **

**Anyways:**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	11. Chapter 11: The Baazi

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

"Sakura." Sasuke's voice shook her from her fitful sleep that she had dropped off into sometime after that had started reading.

She was lying under a fleece blanket and Sasuke was sitting up against the headboard next to her, one of Tsunade's journals on his lap, the bedside table lamp was flicked on alluding to the fact that the entire room was dark.

Sakura bolted upright and rubbed at her face "How long have I been asleep?" she asked frantically as she flipped the covers off of her legs.

"A couple of hours." Sasuke said absentmindedly as he turned the page in the journal.

"A couple of _hours_? Why didn't you wake me?! I have to go check on Hinata…" she hopped out of bed and pulled some slippers on.

"Sakura, Don't worry, I already checked on her an hour ago—Naruto is still with her and the nurse on hand says her vitals are stable." He reached a crossed the bed and gently tugged her back into it she stayed stiff as he pulled her in, she relaxed after a moment under his arm.

"Besides, I found something." He said and Sakura's heart jumped with hope. She reached for the journal but he held onto it "I don't want to get your hopes up—there are a few pages missing."

Sakura gave him a look and he finally surrendered the battered book to the pink haired woman. Sakura placed it in her lap and looked at the top line hungrily; it was dated for thirty five years ago. She began to read out loud:

_It's icy and white in the land of waves; winter has clamped its icy jaws with a fervor that I've never seen. We've been called her to investigate an outbreak of some sort of plague. The patients range from the age of seven all the way to sixty-five. All are prominent members of the upper class society that the land of waves boasts. Symptoms include weakening of the immune system, nausea, fevers, and many more that we have yet to pin down. All this leads to death. We've already lost three of twelve patients and four had died before we arrived. _

Sakura flipped the page and began to read the next journal entry.

_Kasumi Hyuuga, one of our healers who possesses the byakugan, made a remark this morning. She said that it was almost as if the chakra of the victims was draining from their bodies at an alarming rate. This theory threw everyone into chaos as tests were done and what we found was shocking. It was almost as if each patient's chakra was being poisoned by some unknown force, I'd never seen anything like it before. But upon giving my report to the elders of the village they informed me with troubled expressions that apparently during the last war between the land of waves and the land of sound there was a clan of shinobi used by the land of sound who had the ability to poison chakra. The clan's official name was the Baazi, who served the land of sound for generations in the shadows. Not much was known about their chakra poisoning ability except that it could be done. One of the elders told me that they usually had to pierce someone with their own chakra imbued weapon but there were a select few who could simply touch someone and they would be infected. But after the war had ended one of the stipulations of peace that the land of waves had made was that the Baazi clan was to be wiped out entirely. _

_I will spare some of the more bloody recounts of this genocide, but according to records every single Baazi clan member was killed. But apparently these records are wrong because it seems that the land of waves is being terrorized by these very people. _

_I am afraid to write what I am truly thinking, it is best to keep them inside of my mind. For now I will just say: Three more victims have been brought in and we are doing our best to heal them but even we grow weary._

The next entry was dated for three weeks later.

_Our healers have begun to get infected with the chakra poisoning, myself included. We were told too late by the elders that anyone who attempts to try and heal a person who is infected with Chakra poisoning will also become sick. Kasumi, the Hyuuga, is now in critical condition due to the fact that she tried to heal a child who was infected. _

_We have decided that we will not abandon our post, we will fight to heal these people and solve with problem even if we die in the process. I do not know what will happen, all I know is that this is what healers do and I am unafraid to die for my cause. _

Sakura leaned back against the headboard staring up at the ceiling "Is that it?" Sasuke nodded and Sakura threw the journal a crossed the room where it hit a wall.

"That was useless!" she yelled, pulling away from him and getting up from the bed "It just made everything worse!" she stalked a crossed the room and drew back a fist to strike the pristine white wall, but Sasuke caught her wrist and held it within his own and twisted her around until she was facing his chest. Then she gently tugged her in and wrapped his arms around her "It may seem hopeless," he murmured into her hair "But you missed one key detail."

"What?" Sakura said, irritated, she hated when he acted vague.

"Tsunade-sama said that she was sick as well from healing patients…" he trailed off allowing the gears in Sakura's head to grind, he knew she was smart enough to figure it out herself once she got past her initial frustration—so when everything clicked into place and she leaned back and gasped he smirked lightly.

"And Tsunade lived for thirty more years!" she said with delight "Which means she found a cure somehow!" Sakura threw her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes in order to give Sasuke a kiss.

They were interrupted by her bedroom door slamming open to reveal a heavily breathing medical assistant. Sakura opened her mouth to reprimand the man for not knocking but his expression halted her words "What is it?" she asked separating herself from Sasuke, dread filling her stomach.

"She's awake." The man puffed as he leaned redfaced on the doorframe.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at one another for a moment before they took off through the door and down the hall, leaving the wheezing medical assistant in their wake.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**So this was a bit of a massive information dump + It was short! The next chapters will hopefully be long ones since I would like a lot to happen in them, I'm assuming this story will be about twenty chapters, maybe less, maybe more. But I'm shooting for twenty. Also... Hinata is awake! [Woohoo -throws confetti-] **

**I can't say much about her physical health until next chapter but... yeah stew over that for a while. This was a pretty heavy Sasusaku chapter, so if you don't like Sasusaku I'm sorry but I really do like them. Uhh... this is usually a pretty explanatory bit of the chapter but this entire chapter is explanatory for the most part. If you do, however, have any questions about the chapter feel free to review. Reviews are what keep me chugging through these chapters and I can't gush enough about how much they help me crank them out!**

**Anywho.**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	12. Chapter 12: Intimate Moments

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

"Hey… I think she's waking up. You, go get Sakura. Don't ask questions just go!" Naruto's voice filtered into the blackness in which Hinata was floating in, coating her with a temporary warmth and coaxing her further into consciousness. "Hinata? Hinata come back to us, to me." Naruto's words were almost like a dream and she curled further into the warmth of his voice. But consciousness won out in the end and she slowly cracked open her eyes and squinted against the light that was filtering in before closing them again.

"Shit sorry, bedside lamp was on—hold on." Something clicked and she tried opening her eyes again, once they were open fully her eyes scanned the room. It was a moderately sized room filled with machines that were beeping away, a dresser sat against the wall underneath a window that was firmly closed. Her eyes finally found the yellow haired hokage sitting in the chair by her bed, looking at her with a concerned expression.

Hinata began to shiver as the warmth of unconsciousness faded and reality sunk in, her entire body ached and she could feel a deep chill beginning from the top of her head all the way down to her toes.

"Hey... welcome back." Naruto said with a small grin. Hinata found herself smiling weakly back at him, her hand felt warm and when she glanced down she realized their hands were intertwined and resting on the bed. Flashes of the last time that she saw Naruto flashed through her mind and his words from that night reverberated through her head and she let go of his hand and slid her hand under the blanket.

"May I have some water?" she rasped and Naruto looked as if he was about to say something more but got up and hurried over to the dresser where a pitcher of water and cups lay and busied himself with getting her water. Hinata watched his broad back as he shuffled around with plastic cups and turned back around carrying a cup with a straw in it triumphantly, shreds of a straw wrapper lay on the dresser causing Hinata to smile inwardly.

Naruto brought the water to her and helped her sit up in order to drink, the water soothed her throat quickly but she drank for a moment longer than needed she wanted to keep the intimacy of the moment locked away in her heart. But soon enough her body's groaning won out and she lay back against the pillows exhausted, she felt feverish and shaky but no longer crackly.

Hinata looked back over at Naruto, he was being quieter than she had ever seen him and he was watching her with an unreadable expression. She offered him a reassuring smile making him jump out of his thoughts.

"Hinata…" he slid his hand through hers again sending shivers up her arm "I—" but before he could say anything else the door to the hospital room burst open and Sakura and Sasuke flew through the doorway.

Hinata gently pulled her hand from Naruto's as Sakura hurried over to the bed. "Hinata you're awake I'm so glad." The girl said with a little sniffle and Hinata patted her hand, Sasuke on the other hand was looking at Naruto who looked a little miffed. "Crap I'm a mess." Sakura said as she ran an arm over her damp eyes and moved on to check Hinata's vitals.

They lapsed into silence as Sakura looked at the readouts and Hinata's temperature and wrote it all down on a chart. "You've got a pretty bad fever, but that's to be expected. You remember what happened right?"

"Some." Hinata replied "I remember waking up to tell you not to heal me. And I know that my chakra is poisoned."

Everyone looked a little unsettled by the fact that she knew what was wrong with her, Hinata silently told herself to keep quiet about Kushina's visit. She wasn't sure if that was a figment of her imagination or Naruto's mother truly contacting her 'Take care of my son.' The woman's words echoed in her heart and she fought back tears. "At times it was almost as if I was outside of my body looking down at you all." She covered for herself quickly.

Naruto was looking at her funny and Hinata looked anywhere but at him, he had always been acutely aware of when she was lying—something that she had found over the last couple of years.

Luckily enough Sakura didn't dwell on it and shrugged "We'll find a cure. I know we will." She stated stubbornly "But for now we should try to get that fever under control, I'll have an IV fluid bag set up and we'll give you some fever herbs and…" Hinata zoned out at the pink haired ninja rattled off a list of medicines, she trusted Sakura completely so she didn't need to hear all of the treatments that she would be given.

She didn't even know where to start to figure this entire situation out, she didn't know the first thing about chakra poisoning but Kushina had seemed so sure that she would be healed some way some how. But all Hinata felt was… sick.

She sat up quickly and grabbed the nearest bucket-like object that she could find (the clear water cup) and threw up into it.

* * *

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto all jumped into action as she threw up the water that she had just drunk. Sakura held back her hair and Sasuke was frantically searching for something bigger that she could throw up in (mostly because he couldn't stand the sight of vomit) and handed it to Sakura. Naruto immediately took the cup of vomit and was about to throw it away when Sakura shot him a look and growled "Throw that out and you die. I need that." He meekly set the cup down and hurried back over to the bed to pull a shaking Hinata into his arms.

Ever since she had woken up his heart had hurt seeing her pale and weak and now gasping for air as she dry heaved in his arms.

After Hinata had calmed down Naruto helped her lay back down and she soon drifted off into a fitful sleep again with a sheen of sweat covering her face and neck. Sakura made a silent gesture for them to follow her out of the room and Naruto reluctantly followed her, kicking himself the whole way. He couldn't believe he had almost begun to talk about what had happened before Hinata left the village, this wasn't the time to be bringing up their relationship drama especially when she was sick like this.

"Why is she so sick now? Why wasn't it showing when she was asleep before?" Sasuke asked as they stood in the hall.

"I think it's because the poison was gestating and as soon as she regained consciousness it sort of kicked into overdrive. Her body is shutting down because all of her chakra is being seeped out of her body at an alarming rate. Her stomach isn't going to be able to hold anything so she's going to be living on fluids." Sakura looked unhappy about this "Which means we have maybe two weeks if her body doesn't shut down completely before then."

"You have to help her." Naruto said firmly.

"I'm doing my best Naruto but this isn't easy." Sakura glared at him.

"You're the best medical ninja in Konoha and possibly the world and you can't heal her? You're not trying hard enough!" Naruto growled and took a small step forward but was cut off by Sasuke stepping in between the two before their tempers snapped.

"You both need to calm down. You're of no use if you're angry."

Sakura and Naruto glared at each other for a moment before sighing, "Did Granny's journals give you any new information?"

Sakura nodded, "Not much. But I do know that the land of Waves had something like this happen thirty-five years ago from a clan of shinobi that were specialized assassins. We should probably send a message… but that will take too long." She frowned.

"I'll go." Sasuke said, "It'll be faster and I can give information quicker—you've got to stay here and look after Hinata." Naruto opened his mouth to volunteer to go with him but Sasuke cut him off "You need to stay here too idiot. She needs you most right now even if you did screw everything up before she left."

"But the land of Waves is two countries away. It would take you at least a week to get there and to get the information? I don't know how long Hinata is going to last…" Sakura nibbled her lower lip.

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance." A monotone voice came from behind them and they all turned to see Gaara and his siblings standing at the end of the hall. Temari held a bouquet of sand lilies no doubt for Hinata and Kankuro was carrying a basket of fruit.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"I mean that my sand can make it there in three days tops. And if I am there with Uchiha-san then the information will flow fast than if it were him by himself."

Naruto was moved by the Kazekage's generous offer "You would do that? For some ninja from another village?"

Gaara's expression shifted "I would. She put herself in harms way to help my village. I will do everything in my power to make sure that she lives."

Naruto grinned "Thanks buddy. Sasuke are you fine with going with Gaara?" the Uchiha nodded and Gaara turned.

"Besides," the red haired man said over his shoulder "I wouldn't let her miss the chance to see you grovel for her forgiveness." A ghost of a smile passed over the man's face and he turned and walked away.

Naruto looked a little dumbfounded "Does everyone know what happened?"

"Pretty much." Temari said with a smirk.

"Ino was very forthcoming with information." Kankuro shrugged.

"Great, just fantastic." Naruto moaned.

"It'll be okay." Sakura said brightly as she whacked him on the back "You'll grow out of being an idiot one day."

"Fat chance." Muttered Sasuke.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**This chapter was all over the place emotions wise, but it served it's purpose. I wonder what will be found in the land of waves, will they find the answer to this poisoning? What is the price of the cure? Will they be willing to pay the price? And then they still have Yori to worry about too... and is Naruto ever going to tell Hinata how he truly feels? **

**Anyways.**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	13. Chapter 13: The Land of Waves

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

The next week passed relatively slowly for those in Suna after Gaara had left with Sasuke. Temari was installed as the temporary Kazekage in his absence and was too busy to spend any time with the ninjas from Konoha, which didn't bother them overly much since they all seemed to rotate through the hospital at any moment of the day to visit Hinata.

Hinata herself was better some days but worse others, Naruto was forced to watch helplessly as her life seemed to seemed to seep from her by the day.

He stayed by her side at nearly all times, the nursing staff had even gone so far as to drag a sofa into Hinata's hospital room so he could catnap whenever he had time. He knew that Hinata felt bad for making him stay with her, but he had constantly reiterated that it was his choice. He was now focused solely on helping Sakura heal her, when she slept he flipped through old medical journals from the archives and read and reread Tsunade's journals from front to back. He had never read so much in his entire life and the feeling that he got when he closed Tsunade's journals after reading it front to back for the third time was less than satisfying.

On the seventh day since Sasuke had left for the land of waves Hinata was well enough to be wheeled through the lush gardens that the Kazekage's compound boasted for a 'stroll'. So as Naruto wheeled her through the gardens he watched her turn her pale face up towards the sun letting it heat her face as they bumped a long the cobbled path.

They were searching for the hot springs waterfall that apparently ran through the mountain that the compound sat against but Naruto had never been very good at directions so they were pretty much going in circles "Temari said it was somewhere around here,,," he muttered to himself as he swiveled his head from left to right n hopes that he would hear the waterfall.

"Hey idiot!" Ino's voice came from behind them and Naruto winced with annoyance before turning to glare at their other companions who had invited themselves to this little excursion. Sakura, Ino, Kurenai and Kakashi were trailing behind them some twenty feet away to give them the illusion of 'privacy' but it was failing miserably. "You walked right past it!" Ino finished pointing to a pathway that led into the trees and no doubt to the waterfall.

Naruto growled lightly before leaning down by Hinata's ear and whispered conspiratorially "We should ditch these guys and go have fun on our own, what do you say?"

"Hey! I heard that!" Ino shouted. Hinata began to giggle which made everyone within earshot smile, but when the giggles quickly turned into a hacking cough everyone was at her side within the blink of an eye asking questions.

"Hinata? Are you alright?" Kurenai asked placing a maternal hand on the girl's back as she continued to cough, her eyes streaming.

Sakura had whipped her stethoscope out of seemingly no where and was listening to the Hyuuga's lungs. Naruto stood on the sidelines feeling helpless until Hinata's cough finally abated and she sat shaking in her wheelchair.

"Maybe we should head inside…" Naruto suggested as he stepped forwards.

"No!" Hinata protested before sitting up straight "I'm fine, please I'm tired of staying in that hospital room all day—and I would really like to see the waterfall."

The people standing around her all looked at one another and sighed before relenting "Fine," Sakura agreed and Hinata smiled brightly "But only for a little while—and you're resting as soon as you get back to the hospital room."

* * *

They stayed by the waterfall for a little over an hour, Naruto and Hinata sat in the shade under a willow tree as their friends lounged around them relaxing in the sun. Kurenai and Kakashi sat on a rock keeping a close eye on the younger generation and chatting idly. Sakura and Ino lay on their stomachs in an oddly carefree manner as they wove wildflowers together for Hinata's hospital room and exchanged quips.

Hinata eventually dropped off into a peaceful sleep leaning against Naruto's shoulder. Peaceful sleep was hard to come by these days for her and they didn't want to jostle her too much so Naruto gently carried her back to her room and they tucked her in. A strand of her blue-black hair slid onto her sleeping face and Naruto brushed it away in an overly tender way and tried not to dwell on the fact that her face looked sallow in the dim lighting.

"Alright loverboy," Sakura whispered "Lets go." She closed the drapes to block out the light in the room and left with Naruto in tow. They had about an hour and a half before they had to wake Hinata up for more tests.

The group was waiting for them outside of the room and they all headed to the Nurse's lounge where they usually sat and talked in private.

"She's getting worse." Ino started grimly as soon as they sat down, she sipped her cup of coffee and looked bleak.

"No she isn't, she was better today than she was yesterday!" Naruto argued scowling at the blond.

"She may have had a little more energy today but she isn't getting better. This was in her pocket." Sakura pulled out the handkerchief that she had used earlier to cover her cough and tossed it on the table. It was spattered with flecks of blood.

"The poison is affecting her respiratory system, which isn't a good sign." They all stared at the offending piece of cloth before Naruto slammed his fists into the table causing them all to jump.

"Damn it where the hell is Sasuke? He'd have already been in the land of waves for four days. It can't be that hard to get information!" No one answered his question.

* * *

_Land of Waves ; Two days prior._

Sasuke sat formally next to Gaara, they were staying in the grand house of the village leader Tatuomo who was widely regarded as the leader of the Land of Waves.

"About that information that you requested Gaara-sama." The robust man sat proudly in front of them puffing on a pipe of tobacco. "I sent my archivists deep into the system and they managed to find these from that time. It was odd though, quite a few of our records are gone. My head archivist says that there was a fire around this time as well but these managed to survive." Tatuomo slid a wrapped bundle of papers towards Sasuke and he opened them.

The first thirty or so were tests that were done and treatments that would help control the poison better. There was a stamp on each one saying whether or not the treatment was successful or a dud.

The last three pages were filled with illegible symbols that he couldn't make heads or tails of. At the bottom was Tsunade's signature. Dread filled the Uchiha as he flipped through the pages to try and find anything that would help them with healing their friend.

Tatuomo and Gaara watched the Uchiha flip through the pages, "I'm sorry that it isn't more," Tatuomo apologized "But I do however have some consolation… ah I was a child around the time that this happened so I don't remember much—but my older brother was one of the victims of the Baazi assassins and he was cured."

Tatuomo rang a bell and whispered something to a servant behind the sliding paper doors and a few minutes later and older man stepped into the room, he was rounder than Tatuomo but they looked similar in most aspects.

"This is my brother Taiga—he is this village's blacksmith and was also one of the few children who were attacked by the chakra poisoning."

Taiga inclined is head silently and sat down cross legged next to his brother.

"What can you tell us about how you were cured?" Gaara inquired monotonously.

"Not much I'm afraid." The blacksmith said in a very deep voice "I remember getting sick one night and the pain and weakness I felt. My parents frantically searched for anything to heal me but were unable to. But then Tsunade—a medic—and her team came in and things began to get better. Then, two weeks after I was poisoned, it just seemed to dissipate overnight. My body of course needed to recuperate from the beating it took but here I sit today alive."

"That doesn't really help us." Sasuke murmured before standing, the three other men stood with him and he bowed at the waist slightly to show respect. "Thank you for all your help." Then the Uchiha turned to leave.

Gaara inclined his head to the brothers before following the Uchiha out.

"That was rather rude Uchiha-san." Gaara said as he strode side-by-side with the dark haired shinobi.

"So sue me. I don't have time to exchange pleasantries—we've got to get back to Suna to figure out what we're going to do next." Sasuke said gruffly.

Gaara nodded silently and summoned his sand from his gourd, they both stepped on it and where in the air again. Gaara watched the Uchiha's blank expression. The man was almost as expressionless as he himself was but Gaara knew that many emotions broiled just under the surface this Sasuke Uchiha was much different than the one he had know three years ago. This one had formed attachments to the people around him which was a wonderful thing, but the Uchiha was also learning how much attachments could hurt. But, Gaara thought silently, it is something that I don't think he would give up.

The pair hurtled top speed back towards Suna.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Was the trip to the land of Waves in vain? You'll sure find out. Anywho this chapter was more of a filler chapter than anything although I did squeeze some information in there. The action will however be picking up again in the next few chapters and I'm still tweaking with the climax of this story (I'm trying to avoid it being anti-climactic but at the same time wrapped up tightly). **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	14. Chapter 14: The Cure

**Dislcaimer:** I do not own Naruto or it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

_Two Weeks Later…_

Naruto and Sakura sat inside of Hinata's hospital room as the patient herself was sleeping, something that she had begun to do more and more as her illness progressed even further. They no longer went for walks and the only fresh air that the Hyuuga was able to receive was that from her open window.

The few times that Naruto would get any rest he would have vicious nightmares, so his rest was few and far in between. His biggest fear was that she would fall asleep and never wake up—Sakura assured him that that wasn't the nature of the illness (as if that were any better)—but he still heaved a sigh of relief whenever her milky eyes would open.

Naruto had tried to talk to her about his feelings, in case the worst happened, but she would cut him off each time insisting that it could wait until after she was better. Naruto had begun to think that she was giving up—which he did not want.

The sound of the door opening brought Naruto out of his stupor; a nurse entered the room and waved them over they stepped into the hall with the woman. "Uchiha-san has returned?" the nurse informed them quietly.

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other with hope; Sasuke was late, something that was rare in itself, Sakura had been fretting for the last week, muttering about things going wrong. "Where is he?" Sakura asked perking up.

"In the lounge resting." The nurse replied and Naruto and Sakura took off in that direction. They made it to the lounge in thirty seconds flat, Naruto threw the door open and hey stumbled inside.

Sasuke was lying on his back on one of the sofas; a damp washcloth had been placed over his eyes. Visible cuts and scratches could be seen on his face and arms and his cloths were in tatters.

"What happened?" Sakura gasped and moved forward towards her boyfriend who sat up at the sound of her voice. The cloth slipped away revealing red, irritated eyes. "We got caught in a damn hurricane is what happened. We had just left the land of Waves when it picked up—things were flying everywhere and a flying tree branch hit Gaara in the shoulder knocking us off his sand platform. The Kazekage was injured." he flinched lightly as Sakura pressed a glowing green hand to his face and over his eyes. The Uchiha's shoulder's relaxed as his scratches healed and his eyes became less irritated. He leaned into Sakura's hand and they shared a quiet moment, Naruto had to look away.

"Does the Kazekage need my assistance?" Sakura asked and stood, but Sasuke tugged her town to sit next to him.

"No he's with a group of healers at the moment, we're both quite a bit dehydrated at the moment—we had to walk the rest of the way. How is Hinata?" Sasuke asked.

"Not good," Sakura answered "She's sleeping more than she's awakes and has had a constant fever for about three days, and she's also developed some respiratory problems—so please tell me you've found something."

Sasuke pulled a bundle of papers out from under the sofa and handed them to her, "It's not as much as I would have liked to get…" but he trailed off as Naruto plopped down on Sakura's other side and she handed him some of the papers and they began to hungrily read through them.

"This is all extra information on the poison and some temporary treatments… which is good for the short term but we need something long term. Naruto do you have anything?" Sakura asked.

"No, I have the same—except for these." He handed her the papers with symbols on them.

"I don't know what that means; it's all gibberish." Sasuke explained.

"No it's not." Sakura interjected and she stood and hurried over to a table and placed the papers on it and produced a paper and a pencil from somewhere in her white hospital coat before sitting down and beginning to scribble something.

"What do you mean? It looks like gibberish to me." Naruto demanded as he peered over the pink haired girl's shoulder.

"Because Tsunade invented it."

* * *

"Chiaka." A voice brought the dark skinned woman into consciousness, she was lying in the cell that they had put her in over two weeks ago. They brought her three meals a day and provided her with books to read but Chiaka would mostly pace the cell like a caged tiger waiting for Sakura to bring her news of the Hyuuga girl's passing.

At first Chiaka had argued with herself that she shouldn't feel sympathetic towards spies—that she should hope the girl dies swiftly. But every time she tried Hinata's face floated through her mind, all gentleness and sweetness—even if she was a Konoha ninja.

"Chiaka." The voice whispered again and this time Chiaka opened her eyes.

Rizu was leaning over her cot, her green hair tickling Chiaka's collar bones.

"Rizu what the hell are you doing here?" Chiaka blurted as she sat up suddenly, blinking rapidly as if the woman in front of her was some sort of figment of her imagination.

"Saving you, silly, when we all woke up Yori filled us in—and you were gone. She told us that these sand bastards kidnapped you." Rizu smoothed Chiaka's hair away from her face and Chiaka wanted nothing more than to nuzzle further into the woman's hand but she forced herself to pull away.

"Rizu they didn't kidnap me. I came here to help—Riz you used _that_ jutsu on someone and now she's dying."

Rizu blanched at her, utter horror passing over her face, but the horror soon smoothed into a temporary blankness as Rizu zoned out and began to nod as if she were listening to someone else in the room but no one was there.

When clarity came back into the woman's eyes she stuck her chin up "That girl was a spy. She deserved it."

"No one deserves that Riz." Chiaka said gently and reached out to touch the woman but she jerked out of reach.

"We have to get going. There is one more errand we need to run before we head back to the sisters." Rizu said gruffly, brushing off the entire conversation.

Chiaka stayed seated "I'm not going with you. Not until you help heal this girl—she's got family and loved ones." Chiaka briefly thought about the man that Hinata had always spoken so fondly of, and she was obviously much loved.

"… You don't have a choice Chiaka." Rizu said quietly with a pained expression twisting her elegant features "Yori needs your strength and I need to make sure that our group stays safe—I love you and… I'm sorry."

"Rizu what are you—" Chiaka began but gasped as her best friend and greatest love lunged for her with something in her hand. Something was stuck onto her forehead over her green clan tattoo. Chiaka brought a hand and found that a star shaped piece of metal clung to her forehead like a second skin. Like an electric shock foreign chakra began to invade Chiaka's body causing the woman immense pain as she double over. After a few moments of spasming Chiaka stilled and stood up straight, an entirely blank expression on her face.

* * *

"What the hell do you mean Tsunade invented it?" Naruto asked as Sakura quickly scribbled down the translation.

"I mean that she created this code herself—it's a medic's code that is used for more top secret treatments and documentation of important medical procedures. Only the highest ranking medical ninjas are even allowed to learn it." Sakura said absentmindedly.

"So why were you allowed to learn it then?" Naruto asked smartly and was rewarded with an elbow in the stomach.

"Because, idiot, I was her pupil and I would be using it one day."

"So was this written by granny?" he mused as he looked at the symbols as if he could discern handwriting.

"Probably." Sakura replied and they lapsed into silence as she finished translating the documents. "Okay there!" she looked at them proud of herself.

"Hurry up and read them out loud." Naruto said impatiently and Sakura rolled her eyes but flipped to the first page and began to read.

_I am the last medical ninja from the original squad left; I have been able to ward off the worst symptoms with some of the treatments that we have created but I feel my body weakening by the day. Fortunately it seems that we've found the cure… but it is a grim one. _

_Apparently whilst one of the village farmers was out by one of the streams gathering waters he saw a man standing on a rock and when he called out the man was surprised and due to the slippery footing he fell and hit his head—he died instantly. _

_The farmer brought the body back to us—and the first thing we noticed was this man's chakra which was draining due to his death—it was red. Had this man been a jinchuriki? We quickly ruled out this possibility because upon looking further through his belongings we discovered a slashed sound forehead protector. And to top it off this man was a war criminal that went by the name of Kentaro Baazi—one of the few Baazi left. This was one of our assassins. _

_But what was more surprising was the fact that while we were busy one of the children patients stood (despite being unable to do so the day before) and wandered down the hall to where we were meeting and said "I feel much better now—may I go home?" this was a miraculous thing and when two others stood and were very much the same we realized what the cure was. _

_The Baazi hold the key to this illness with their lives. They can infect people with their unique chakra but the only way to heal them is by the death of the original attacker. It is a sad outcome to this entire situation. But we must save these innocents, which means we will be hunting down the remaining Baazi clan members. I have contacted the Inuzaka clan we could utilize their tracking skills… _

Sakura trailed off and they sat in silence for a moment. "We have to kill Rizu." She murmured with disbelief.

"Hinata will never go for it." Naruto said haggardly and he had to sit down "she would never take someone else's life so that she can continue living."

"She has to." Sakura said stubbornly "We need her."

That simple phrase made everyone sober up, they did need her. She was the best of them all with her kind and gentle ways.

She's one of my best friends, Sakura thought.

She never judged me even when I judged myself, thought Sasuke.

I love her, Naruto's simple thoughts reverberated through his head—he loved her and he had wasted three years that they could have been together after the war because he figured that they would have time. He hadn't realized how much she had come to mean to him.

A crashing sound tore them from their thoughts "What the hell was that?" Sakura asked as she stood a long with Sasuke and Naruto and they hurried from the lounge and into the hallway. There were several nurses lying on the ground with shattered glass surrounding them.

Sakura hurried over to them and knelt down "Are you alright?"

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto growled.

One of the only conscious nurses sat up and held a hand to her bleeding eye "T-the prisoner escaped the one that came with you when you returned from your mission. She's like a zombie!"

Naruto paled and broke into a run, heading for Hinata's room. The door was open once he got there and her tumbled inside only to find Hinata's bed empty—the sheets had been twisted around as if there had been a struggle but Hinata was no where to be seen.

The only movement was the cotton curtains billowing in the wind from the open window.

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Wow what an action packed chapter, huh! Hinata is gone! The cure is revealed but is the most gruesome thing anyone could thing of! What will happen next!**

**Also; Dragon0905: I seriously commend you-you've been pretty on point with everything thus far! Context clues are so much fun huh! **

**Anywho, the next chapter should be up soon but I wanted to update since my next few weeks will be pretty busy. **

**Please Read and Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	15. Chapter 15: Conversations in the Dark

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

_Drip, Drip, Drip._

That was the first thing Hinata heard when she finally awoke, it was the sound of water hitting rock. Hinata forced her eyes to open but once they were wide open she found she couldn't see anything anyways. She was lying against a cold stone wall, her ankles were shackled and the chains clinked as she shifted into a more comfortable position with difficulty.

A woolen blanket had been haphazardly throw over her legs but it did little to ward off the chill that had set into her bones, she pulled the blanket around her shoulders in hopes of warming herself but all it did was make her itchy. Her chest hurt and she began to cough again, she brought a hand to her mouth and coughed harder and harder. After a few moments the bout of coughing subsided leaving her shaky.

"You're awake." a familiar voice said from the darkness causing her to jump.

"Chiaka?" Hinata squinted and tried to see her friend through the blackness but failed.

The voice sighed and the sound of chains clinking as the other occupant of the room shifted "Yep I'm here."

The image of Chiaka standing over her hospital bed with a blanked expression on her face filled her mind. She had awoken at the sound of glass breaking and had rolled over expecting Naruto to be sitting at her bedside telling her to go back to sleep, that it had just been a nurse dropping a vase. But she had seen her friend hulking over her bed, a swift chop to the back of Hinata's neck had rendered her unconscious and she hadn't woken up until a few minutes ago.

"You kidnapped me." Hinata said with disbelief.

"Yeah I did-but not of my own volition. I was in a cell in Suna and Rizu found me-she put something on my forehead that allowed Yori to reconnect her chakra with mine and use me as her little puppet again." The utter betrayal in Chiaka's voice made Hinata's chest hurt.

"I'm sorry." Hinata murmured with sympathy and she reached out in the general direction of Chiaka's voice, the room must have been rather thin because she only had to reach out part of the way before her hand met Chiaka's knee.

Chiaka's gasp made Hinata pull away, "Hinata you're freezing!" the woman exclaimed.

"Sorry." the girl said again "It's cold in here." the sound of fabric rustling and another woolen blanket was tossed a crossed the room at her, this one had been warmed by it's previous wearer and Hinata cuddled into the warmth gratefully as another fit of coughing interrupted their conversation for a few moments.

After the coughing had subsided Hinata wiped her streaming eyes "Do you know where we are?" she asked.

"Sort of, I can't remember much from when I was under Yori's control-but I do know we aren't back at out hideout thats for sure. We're underground and by a river I would guess since there is dripped water. But that could be anywhere." Chiaka answered.

They lapsed into silence "So is loverboy going to come looking for you?"

"He isn't my loverboy," Hinata said quietly "But yes he will."

"Good. Because according to Sakura this guy was about ready to rip the world apart to look for a cure to heal the chakra poisoning." Chiaka's said in a bemused voice and Hinata was glad for the darkness so her blush could be hidden.

She changed the subject "What does Yori want with me? Why kidnap me?"

"Honestly? I don't know. I figure it's because of your byakugan-but it could be any number of things. Or maybe she wanted a ransom since you are the Hyuuga heir."

"But I would have to be alive in order to get any ransom from my family at all." Hinata felt sleepy and she yawned.

"You're tired. You should get some rest." Chiaka said into the darkness, Hinata wanted to protest but her eyes were already growing heavy and she fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

She was awoken some time later by the sound of stone grinding against stone, She sat up with a start despite her achy body protesting. Light filtered into the room and Hinata had to shield her eyes, she got her first look at the room they had been held in, it was more of a glorified closet really the room was about four by five feet. Hinata looked over at Chiaka who was glaring towards the opening door, chains covered almost every inch of her body, her waist, ankles, hands, fists, neck and so much more had been chained to the wall and floor. Hinata knew that the woman was strong, but apparently she was stronger than the Hyuuga had ever thought since their captors were taking so many precautions with her. Hinata had simply been shackled on one foot, her hands had been left free.

Yori and Rizu stepped into the room, Yori smiling benevolently and Rizu was looking everywhere but at the shackled Chiaka "Finally awake I see." the woman remarked.

"Rizu you have to let us go." Chiaka pleaded but Rizu ignored her, she stared straight ahead. Yori laughed.

"Come now Chiaka, I wont hurt you. I have use for you-both of you." she finally turned to look at Hinata who glared at her. "Such pretty white eyes, I wish I could pluck them from your head." she sighed "But they are of more use in your head than out unfortunately-so we need you healthy."

"There is no cure for chakra poisoning." Hinata said firmly, wondering what the woman knew that she didn't.

"Wrong." Yori sang, "You see the Baazi clan of course needed a backup plan just in case they poisoned the wrong person-and of course it's something very grisly."

Before Hinata could reply the woman whirled around blindingly fast and ran a long thin blade through Rizu's middle. Chiaka screamed.

Rizu fell with a thunk in front of Hinata who stared at the gasping woman for a moment before leaping into action without second thought. Her hands flew to the bleeding wound and began to glow green. The glow quaked and sputtered, as she was running on empty chakra, but she gritted her teeth and pushed on.

"Don't you see?" Yori asked pouting "I just saved your life and you want to throw it away. The Baazi had a very lovely motto 'a life for a life' if any of their ranks was stupid enough to poison the wrong person then there was a sort of… back up button. If they kill the person who originally poisoned the victim then the victim would no longer be poisoned. There is probably something profound with this entire thing but thats the gist of it."

Hinata ignored the woman, she finished healing Rizu and collapsed against the wall. Rizu turned her head to look at Hinata with surprise.

"I would never. Ever. Let someone die so that I could live." Hinata replied her eyes blazing.

"She attacked you first. With intent to kill." Yori pressed on.

"Under _your _control." Hinata tilted her chin up and glared defiantly "If you wish to use me for your own twisted ends that is fine. I can take care of myself. But you will not harm Rizu-san in order to do so or I will keep healing her until all of my chakra is gone and I am dead. Find another way."

Yori hissed, her eyes flashing "You seriously want to piss me off don't you little Hyuuga?" she spat Hinata's surname like it was a disease, but she didn't lift another hand towards them instead she kicked Rizu's foot. "Get up. Come with me." when Rizu didn't move Yori signalled for some of the women who were being controlled inside to pick the woman up and drag her out. "Fine. I will find another way try not to bite your tongue off or anything." then she was gone, the wall shutting behind her.

"Hinata are you okay?" Chiaka asked hoarsely, she had been crying.

Hinata didn't answer, she instead wondered what she had just agreed to.

* * *

Naruto sat in Gaara's office with his arms crossed, it had been two days since Hinata had been abducted and they had searched the entirety of Suna from top to bottom. They had turned the Dune Sister's hideout apart looking but it had been abandoned.

"We have to keep looking." Naruto announced "We have to."

Gaara watched the Hokage, this wasn't looking good for the relations between Suna and Konoha. Not only was the Hokage's loved one taken, but on top of that she was a Hyuuga so the Hyuuga family would hold Suna solely responsible. "I understand Naruto but I don't even know where to look. They could be anywhere at this point, what do you expect of me?"

"I don't know!" Naruto yelled with frustration. "Something! Anything is better than sitting around here."

Gaara was about to reply when a soft knock on the door stopped him, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair "Come in."

Temari stepped in with Sakura and Sasuke following her "Gaara. There is someone here to see you."

"I am in the middle of a meeting at the moment Temari, you will have to tell them to come back later." Gaara replied with an irritated scowl.

"Gaara you really might want to see him-he says that he know who Yori is."

* * *

**-Author's Note-**

**Hey you guys! Sorry for the delayed update, it's been a nuts week so far. This chapter was a long time coming and I was wondering how to structure it but I hope it worked out as such. You guys just knew that Hinata would never ever allow someone to die to save her-so how is she going to get better? And just what is Yori's backstory? **

**Anywho, **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	16. Chapter 16: Branches

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or it's characters, I do however own any OC's that appear within this story.

* * *

Naruto examined the man standing before them, he was tall and thin with sky blue eyes that bore no pupils. His long face was chiseled with cheekbones that had just barely a hint of stubble. His long blond hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail that swung down his back, just past the backs of his knees. Naruto looked the man up and down again before looking over at Gaara who was sitting at his desk. Gaara was leaning on his desk examining the man with steepled fingers.

"Who are you?" he finally spoke, his monotone voice breaking the silence.

"My name is Iru." the man's voice was wispy and gentle.

"And how do you know this Yori?"

The man sighed "She is my sister." Gaara opened his mouth to say something but Naruto was already flying a crossed the room, pushing Iru until he slammed into a wall. A growl erupted from the hokage's lips as he glared at the man "What the hell do you mean you're her brother?"

Gaara's sand erupted from his gourd as sand wrapped around Naruto's middle and dragged him back a crossed the office, the Kazekage then shot Naruto a glare that could make even the strongest ninja cringe and Naruto sat in on of the seats with his arms crossed.

Iru stood and brushed his shoulders off and stared emotionlessly at Gaara, Naruto swore they were competing on who could keep their face stoic the longest because Iru broke after a minute and his face relaxed.

"This is a very strenuous tale Kazekage-sama, do you mind overly much if I take a seat?"

Gaara inclined his head and Iru sat.

"This tale starts a very long time ago-about one hundred years to be precise-and it starts in the village of Kohonakagure." Iru shot a look at Naruto who shifted forwards to listen better, it started in Konoha? "The Hyuuga family was and is one of the most powerful clans in the world, their abilities are coveted, but of course any family that is this powerful has it's problems. The division between the main branch and the side branches, which is still prevalent today, was even more so a century ago. It came to the point where a select group of side branch Hyuuga's decided that they had had enough and tried to revolt. Of course they were unsuccessful, they would never be as strong as the main branch and did not have the support of the rest of the clan. They were apprehended and banished from the clan and Konohagakure."

"So there is an entire clan of exiled Hyuuga's running around?" Naruto queried with wonder.

Iru smiled cynically, the first show of emotion that he'd presented since they had met "You would think that, but no. You see the elders of the Hyuuga clan had quite the predicament, they couldn't outrightly kill the Hyuuga traitors-the clan's loyalties were touchy at best-but they also couldn't let the Byakugan out of their clan it was an exclusive ability that they prided themselves on."

Naruto gulped, he knew where this was going. When he'd been in school as a child they had taught him about something like this-a coup that didn't work. They hadn't given the children the specifics but he heard some of the older children talking about it.

"The traitor's eyes were gouged out and they were dropped together in the middle of the wilderness, left to fend for themselves. They wandered aimlessly for a long time, trying their best to stay together. Many died. Eventually they stumbled into a village of kind souls in the land of sound and they were taken care of."

"That plan doesn't seem like it would work-wouldn't the children inherit the Byakugan from their parents?" Gaara asked.

"Yes-well if they bred with another Hyuuga. But those were not high in stock, many of the men died during their wanderings. So those who were left over bred with the villagers, and the chances of a normal person and a hyuuga having a child with the ability is about one in eight." Iru kept going "Any children that had it were hidden away from prying eyes and trained to become assassins for the exiled Hyuuga's whose vendetta against the Hyuuga clan grew ever larger."

"Okay so where do you and your sister come into this?" Asked Naruto.

"We are the third generation of this clan and the only children of this generation left. Five years ago news reached the Hyuuga clan, revealing our whereabouts. Shinobi from that clan were immediately dispatched to take care of the problem. It was a massacre, everyone was being killed-even our mother who bore the byakugan herself was taken down easily by the stronger pure Hyuuga's. Yori and I just barely escaped but Yori was never the same."

Naruto stiffened, he had never heard about this! He didn't think granny would have allowed something like this to happen-they had slaughtered an entire group of people. He wondered if Hinata even knew about it but quickly decided that she didn't, that wasn't the sort of thing that the dark haired girl would ever get herself involved with. He vaguely remembered his promise to help her change her clan-but he had never known that it was this bad. He brought his attention back to Iru "How do I know you speak the truth?"

"Because, Hokage-sama, I can help you and you can help me."

"What do you want?"

"Yori."

"Fat chance in hell. She needs to pay for her crimes." Naruto growled.

"I agree. But I wish to be with her, our mother charged me with protecting her and I have failed thus far-I wish to make amends." Iru said it so simply that Naruto couldn't help but believe him.

"And what if where she goes is death?" Gaara queried, reminding them that he was still there.

Iru did not break Naruto's gaze "I do not believe that the Hokage would take her life even if she committed more heinous crimes than what she already has."

Gaara harrumphed, but Naruto was deep in thought. It was true that he abhorred taking anyone's life-even if it was sometimes a necessity-but if Hinata didn't come back alive he knew that he would lose it. So he didn't disagree nor agree with the man instead he changed the subject: "So tell me, how can you help me-" he was cut off by a shout that had them all standing.

Sakura and Ino burst into the room dragging an orange haired girl into the room by her arms, "Naruto!" Sakura shrieked angrily causing him to wince "This is a spy from the dune sisters-we caught her waiting in the hallway."

Gaara sprung into action, his sand flew from the gourd once more and wrapped around the girl's ankles.

The room was in chaos as Iru made a smooth motion that Naruto recognized as a Hyuuga chakra technique and knocked the sand from the air with his chakra needles. The girl fell from the air and he caught her.

"Please calm down." he said emotionlessly "She means no harm, she is my wife."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Oh goodness me it's been a while since I've updated! I sincerely apologize I didn't mean to take to long but school took over and, well, I've been writers blocked. Anyways here is a quick chapter-more to come after I graduate later this week so be on the look out. **

**Also; who liked the plot twist with Kila?**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	17. Chapter 17: The Secrets that Bind

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

They all sat around a long table, Kila and Iru sat on the end-Iru had placed a protective arm around the woman's shoulders. Sakura glared at her and she glared right back, when she had seen the familiar orange hair she'd seen red and had immediately signalled for Ino to grab her. But what Sakura couldn't believe was that she was actually a double agent so-to-speak. The girl-well woman seeing as she was married-was sitting in her chair and smugly looking at Sakura and Ino who were also sitting next to one another.

"Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on exactly?" Naruto asked from his place a crossed the table.

"Certainly, I was getting to it when we were in the Kazekage's office but we were interrupted." Sakura and Ino winced at the sharp look that Naruto gave them "Kila and I have been married for three years and when I expressed my need to find my sister and bring her home-she offered to help me." the look of affection that he sent his wife made Sakura blush-she'd seen that look on the faces of both Naruto and even Sasuke.

"I went undercover so to speak about a year and a half ago." Kila began, surprising the pink haired ninja with how grown up she sounded "When I found the Dune Sisters it didn't take me very long to infiltrate-as you can see I look young." she waved a hand at her face.

"How were you able to get information from them?" Ino piped up from her seat "It was hard enough to get even names from them."

"I'm a unique genjutsu type, it's almost like a truth serum but the person I put it on will tell me anything I need to know." Everyone in the room stiffened and Kila barked a good natured laugh "Don't worry I won't place you under it-it's a very draining Jutsu. Although I did put Ino under it at one point and she didn't even realize it." Ino stood abruptly her eyes blazing.

"So thats how Yori knew that we were undercover you told her!" She began to jump at the orange haired girl but Sakura held her back.

Kila held her hands up "It's true that I told Yori-I didn't know that she would make Rizu use that jutsu on the Hyuuga. Plus it gained me favor with her."

Sakura dragged Ino back down into her seat and shot her a look. Sasuke, who had been leaning quietly against one wall finally spoke up "Why didn't you think that she would use it on Hinata?"

Kila met the Uchiha's eyes "A main branch Hyuuga is worth more alive than dead. Believe it or not Hyuuga Hinata is more famous than one would think-and she would be even more famous if she was more bloodthirsty. She's stronger than most of you realize, but her sweet demeanor dampens it quite a bit."

Naruto shifted in his seat uncomfortably and noticed the rest of the ninjas from Konoha doing the same. They had all underestimated her at one point or another and she'd come through for them.

"What do you think she is going to use her for?" Sakura asked.

"Honestly? She is more than likely going to use the Hyuuga to get back at the Hyuuga family." the room was silent, Naruto was looking down at his lap and Sakura gritted her teeth.

"I have a question." Ino said, breaking the silence "How did she learn that body control jutsu? I've never seen anything like it, Hinata said it was almost as if her chakra was connecting with the various chakra points on the victim's body-and she was controlling over a hundred different bodies at once…"

Iru shrugged "I will be of no help in that aspect-she left me four years ago and she learned it within that span of time so I honestly have no idea what this sort of jutsu entails. Kila do you know anything else?"

Kila shrugged "I've watched her take control over someone-it's a painful experience to even watch. She overloads that person's chakra with her own until each chakra point if coated with it and then she has control over it. It's immensely hard to break-nearly impossible."

"Chiaka broke through it before Hinata was stabbed." Sakura pointed out.

"Yes but Chiaka is also a genjutsu type and a powerful one at that. I'm not too surprised that she broke out." Kila shrugged and flicked a long lock of orange hair behind her shoulder.

"Great, this information is good and all but how are you going to help us find Hinata?" Kiba, who had been sitting down at the far end of the table piped up and Akamaru who was lying on the floor barked in agreement.

"Well I can help you because I know where her hideout is." Kila said with a self satisfied smile.

* * *

Hinata awoke from her fitful sleep to the sound of stone grinding against stone, it seemed that Chiaka was attempting for what seemed like the thousandth time to break free from her full body shackles, but failed as usual. They had been there for what Hinata thought was about a week, she had taken to sleeping more and more and was rarely awake on most days. Chiaka would try and speak with her and try to keep her conscious but Hinata's deteriorating body screamed for the sweet release that sleep brought.

"Hinata wake up." Chiaka's low voice brought her completely to the surface as she jerked awake, her head bobbled precariously for a moment as she leaned back against the wall to look at the people entering into the room. One blank faced woman entered the room carrying a silken purple robe, two women also entered dragging an unconscious woman between them. Hinata realized with a jolt that it was Rizu, her face had been beaten and bruised, half of her face had been marred by long scratch marks that would surely scar. But what horrified the Hyuuga the most was the state of the woman's hair. Previously long and shiny it had been shorn short and close to her head, shocks of hair stood up showing that the person who had cut it had been careless and uneven.

Chiaka was fighting against her restraints as they laid and unconscious Rizu on the ground and turned towards Hinata and began to take her shackles off. Hinata wished that she could fight back against these women-that she could do something, anything to show them that she hadn't given up and she would fight them till her last breath. But a numbness had set into her limbs a few days prior, making it hard to move with any precision whatsoever.

After they had taken her shackles off they loaded her onto a pallet and shackled Rizu down where she had previously been, adding wrist and waist shackles onto her unconscious body.

"Hinata, Hinata!" Chiaka yelled, her voice going hoarse. Hinata looked over at her and let fear fill her eyes for the first time since she had arrived in the damp cell. And then she was carried out of the cell and into the hall wondering if this was the last time she would see her friend.

They carried her through a series of stone hallways and up many flights of steps, the women being mind-controlled never seemed to tire despite the many many steps. Hinata did her best to look at her surroundings but the world spun as her eyes caught the light of passing lamps and she had to close her eyes due to their sensitivity.

Finally they seemed to stop climbing and Hinata braved a look around her, they were in a fine stone corridor that was dimly lit with torches and candles the lit quickly make looking around unbearable and she shut her eyes again.

* * *

The next thing that she knew they were laying the pallet down on a cold stone floor and leaving, their slippered feet making whispery noises on the stone floor as they did so.

"So little Hyuuga." Yori's voice came through the darkness "I didn't kill Rizu as you saw."

Hinata opened her eyes one at a time despite their heavy feeling, "Then I take it you got what you wanted?" she said, her voice was a whisper. Yori was up and gliding a crossed the room which looked like some sort of bathing chamber, there was a sunken in bathtub filled with ice and candle light glowed from many sconces set into the wall.

"I did. And it works out best in the end for me anyways, would you like to know how I'm going to do it?" the woman gushed gleefully.

"No. Not overly much."

"Well it won't matter in a few minutes anyways. You see over the last few days I've had various chats with little Rizu-and she didn't know anything about her jutsu she told me that she didn't even remember her parents, poor thing. So I dug a little deeper, and I found some old memories-which were particularly useful. Even if I knocked a few screws loose doing so." Yori didn't sound sorry and Hinata found herself appalled by this woman who showed so little remorse for her actions.

"Anywho, she has a memory of her mother talking to her father about the 'failsafe' that they discovered. You see, they needed a back up plan because mistakes do happen and if everytime someone made a mistake someone would have to die to make it better then there would be no one to keep the clan going. Do you see where I'm going here?" Yori smiled down at Hinata who wished she could sit up.

"Well if you don't let me spell it out to you. I'm going to overload your chakra with my own, purging all of the poison from your system. It's almost like a reset my dear, Hinata Hyuuga will cease to exist. You will belong to me."

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Dun-dun-dun.**

**So I apologize if this is a bit confusing, and overly dramatic I'm trying to keep the story from being too plot-holey and failing. This fanfic is nearly finished, as we head closer and closer to the climax many things will be put to the test, and on top of this will be Naruto and Hinata's relationship. **

**Also thank you for all the congratulations everyone! It's so sweet of you! I can't wait to graduate!**

**More chapters to come soon!**

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	18. Chapter 18: Erasure

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

The sound of tabi boots smacking into hard earth and the labored breathing of those behind him were the only things that Naruto could hear. He led the large group of Shinobi towards the land of Sound-to where Yori was hiding out and to where Hinata was. Gaara had taken another group around the long way to cut them off on the other side so that Yori couldn't make a quick escape.

The yellow haired Hokage knew that he was pushing the shinobi behind him, but he wanted to get to Hinata as soon as possible-they'd already been delayed a day due to the fact that they needed to gather forced and supplies. Naruto had called for his most trusted Shinobi from Konoha-the original Konoha eleven were all behind him as they headed further into the territory that used to be just a desolate landscape until Orochimaru had turned it into the so-called land of Sound. People had immigrated there from all over and now it was a working village with a great mining economy.

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice cut deep through Naruto's thoughts as she landed next to him and began running at pace with him "Slow down, we're nearly there and if you go barging in you're going to ruin any chance of surprise that we may have." Naruto skidded to a stop, his feet sending dust flying into the air. The shinobi company behind him also skidded to a stop and he could see many putting their hands on their knees and breathing heavily. Even Naruto's own chest rose and fell heavily.

"I thought we had a plan? Gaara and his group will go around and come in through the back, and we barge in through the front." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, his eyes moving towards the stone castle jutting up out of a mountain in the distance. That was where Yori had taken all of the Dune Sisters and Hinata.

"Thats not a full plan and you know it." Sakura levelled a look at him "You're the Hokage I know Tsunade-sama taught you everything she knows about strategy. I know you want to barge right in there and play hero but you need to use common sense-especially with Hinata's life at stake."

He sighed and his shoulders slumped slightly, he opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by a soft whispery voice.

"Sakura-sama," Katsuyu, Sakura's summon, piped up from her place on Sakura's shoulder. "Gaara-sama and his troops are in position, he said he awaits Naruto-Sama's go ahead."

"Thank you Katsuyu. Naruto-what is the plan?" Sakura asked turning towards her leader.

Naruto rocked back on his heels lightly as his mind raced to put together some semblance of a plan, it was true that he had learned of strategy from Granny-in fact it was something he was pretty good at.

"Okay," he said and signalled for the shinobi to gather around "Heres the plan."

* * *

Hinata lay on her pallet as people bustled around her, her body felt light as they lit candles and lifted her pallet and placed it within the icy water of the bath. The chill that she had already been feeling intensified as she gasped out loud, no one stopped to ask if she was alright.

"Uncomfortable?" Yori asked from her seat, she was lounging in a plush chair and sipping red white from a clear glass as emotionless women worked around her. Hinata didn't answer the woman but instead closed her eyes and focused on warding off the cold. "It'll be over soon, don't worry." the words had been phrased as if Yori was being genuinely concerned, but the flippant undertone made Hinata shudder.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked softly "Why is it so important to keep me alive?" Hinata knew that she was stalling for time in any way possible.

"Because you are a part of the Hyuuga family-the most corrupt family in the world. In fact you're the princess of said family. What would it look like to the rest of the world if their heiress was being controlled by a _half breed_? Someone who is hailed to be stronger and above the rest? It will be humiliating. But when I am controlling you and your pesky personality is out of the way? You'll be able to slaughter the family that killed my family." Yori's voice became slightly high pitched and a breathy giggle filled the room.

"You have a vendetta against my family? I can assure you that the Hyuuga clan has changed and become more tolerant than it had been previously…" Hinata was grasping for anything she could use.

"Don't you see?" Yori's voice was directly above her "I _am_ your family princess dearest. But of course I was a side branch, my grandparents weren't happy with the gap between the main brain and everyone else and decided that they were fed up. They decided to stage a coup but of course failed and they were exiled. You know what that means don't you?" Hinata winced, she knew. The depictions of people's eyes being gouged in the Hyuuga history books still gave her nightmares.

"Enough talk you cannot delay the inevitable anymore-lets begin." she clapped her hands and servants moved forwards with platters. On one of them was a long curved knife that Yori picked up and looked at the sharpness.

"This is a fairly simple process, I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it before. I would explain it to you but I've droned on enough." She sliced horizontally over the top of one of her forearms and held her arm over the bath, blood droplets fell and hit the water and a thump went through Hinata's body.

As the bath turned red from Yori's blood the thumping continued and Hinata gasped with each thump.

"There we go, that should be enough." Yori said brightly as she licked the blood from her arm and handed the knife back to an awaiting servant. "Now for the fun part."

The woman's hands moved violently fast as her fingers formed seals that Hinata had never seen before, she tried to keep up with her eyes but was unable to, an electrified tinge filled the room. Then Yori placed her hands flat on Hinata's chest and forehead respectively and the room seemed to erupt.

It felt as if thousands of white hot needles were being shoved into her skin and a raw scream was ripped from her throat as her body seized uncontrollably. Chakra drove it's way into her body, piercing her poisoned chakra points and healing them but causing her immense pain the the process.

Then, the intensity of the pain stopped and Hinata felt herself fading away and soon Hinata Hyuuga was no more.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Well dang, thats not good is it. This is a ridiculously short chapter but it was fairly action packed so forgive me! The next one will be longer I promise! **

**There are only about four or five chapters left + a smut chapter at the end that is optional so be prepared! **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	19. Chapter 19: Disconnected

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

Naruto rounded a corner and signalled for the group behind him to follow silently, the plan was a good one but the unknown variables of this mission would make it hard to execute this plan perfectly without changing it to fit the mission. He'd sent half of his trooped to scale the side of the castle and take out the women sentries at the top and make their way back down, the other half had split into smaller groups and were spreading out and covertly incapacitating as many women as possible. Sakura estimated that there were about three to four hundred women that were a part of the Dune Sisters, but she also said that she couldn't be sure whether or not Yori took more people udner her control, so they were proceeding with caution.

Naruto had finally tapped into what made him a great leader, his optimism. He was going to find Hinata and he was going to take down Yori in the process. He turned to Sakura who was next to him, she oozed confidence. The rest of the Konoha ninjas were behind him with a smattering of Suna shinobi as well.

His fingers moved in quick signals and the group moved out and around another corner-there were two women patrolling in the hallway. Sasuke moved lightening fast and took out the one that was further away with a swift chop to the back of the next-Ino took out the other one and they dragged them to the nearest supply closet and tied them up. Earlier one of the more bloodthirsty Suna ninjas had asked why they couldn't aim to kill on the women and Gaara's eyes had turned so icy that even Naruto had shivered. That Ninja and those who agreed with them had been escorted from the room and taken off the mission.

As they moved further towards the center of the castle the number of women increased and it became harder and harder to incapacitate them quickly and silently. They began to meet witht he other shinobi that they had split up with and soon there was a wall of shinobi behind Naruto as he led them futher into the castle.

Suddenly they were stopped by a shrill warning call, at the end of one of the hallways stood a little girl with blank eyes. They hadn't seen her because she was so small and she had screamed loud enough to alert any other nearby.

"Shit." Naruto growled as women poured into the hallway, secret panels in the stone walls opened and women spilled from their depths-Kunai at the ready.

"Do your best not to harm them too much!" he yelled as he drew his arms up the block a woman brandishing a wickedly sharp knife. With a quick sweep of his leg he dropped her to the ground and smacked a sleep tag onto her forehead (courtesy of Sai) and then dragged her towards the wall. He was forced to drop her when another woman leapt onto his back and raked down his neck with her sharp nails "Ouch dammit!" he yelled and grabbed her arms and flipped her over his back-she hit the wall with a dull thud and landed on the ground with her eyes closed. Naruto prayed he hadn't killed her but was quickly distracted by more women coming from the onslaught.

It was almost like ants swarming from their ant hill to defend it against intruders, they just kept coming from the wqall making it hard for Naruto and the shinobi around him to get anywhere.

Eventually, though, they fought their way to the very center of the castle and they stood bloody and breathing hard. Sai, Lee, Shikamaru and many of the Sand ninjas had stayed behind to fend off as many of the women as possible and to tie up the ones who had already been knocked out.

Two large double doors stood in between them and whatever was in the center of the castle, it was the only place no one had been in and more than likely Hinata and Yori were in there. Naruto wanted to reach for the door and throw is open but a strange foreboding feeling was filling the pit of his stomach. He looked over at Sakura and Sasuke who locked eyes with him-they were feeling it too.

"Are you going to open it or what?" Kiba piped up from behind them, he and Shino were almost as worried as Naruto.

Naruto reached for the door handle and Sasuke reached for the other, together with muscles straining they threw the thick doors open and stepped inside, their bodies coiled tightly and ready for anything attack that may come their way.

The scene they were greeted with was an odd one, the room was long and oval shaped and went upwards in a cone all the way up to the ceiling where a class dome sat atop it instead of a ceiling. Naruto could see the stars twinkling above them. Torches were placed in sconces and lit the room dimly so that they could see. Women stood against the wall unmoving, if Naruto hadn't known better he would've mistaken them for statues.

Curtains had been hung from the far wall and sitting on a dais in front of them was a large plush chair that could only be described as a throne. Sitting in the chair was a woman with long blond hair that coild around her body like a pale snake, her long thin face was regal looking and would've have been regal except for the way that her lips curved upwards at the sight of Naruto and the rest of the Shinobi in his company made him shudder. But it was her eyes that disconcerted him the most, one of them was normal and the color of spring leaves-but the other was a milky white which signalled the fact that it was a Hyuuga eye.

"Welcome!" the woman exclaimed standing and throwing her arms wide open like a gracious hostess "To my Castle! I am Yori." She planted her hands on her curvy hips that were swathed in a draping red silky fabric.

"Cut the bullshit." Naruto growled "You took one of my ninjas and I want her back."

"I must say you have awful manners for someone who is in a place of leadership, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Yeah well I wasn't chosen because I could turn a pretty word." Naruto glared at her "Now where. Is. She." his voice had gone deadly cold.

"Alright, alright hold your horses." She turned towards the curtains behind her and held out a hand and she stepped through the curtains to join the blond woman.

Naruto's eyes ate in her face, in the dim lighting he could see a healthy glow filling her cheeks and her movements were solid and confident. But when his eyes met hers he stepped back with a jolt, they held no emotion whatsoever.

"What did you do to her? Hinata!" he yelled moving forwards, the girl who was Hinata but wasn't moved blindingly fast and cut him off, forcing him to draw his arms up towards his head to block her. Her hit knocked him backwards and he skidded back and was only stopped by Sakura and Sasuke's firm hands on his shoulders.

"You're controlling her!" Sakura gasped, their worst fears realized. Iru had said that Yori would try to use Hinata to get back at the Hyuuga clan.

"No, actually, I'm not. She is here of her own volition." Yori said and reached out to run a hand over Hinata's silky blue-black hair.

"You're lying!" Kiba shouted and moved charged at Yori. Hinata leapt into his path her byakugan activated, she palmed his chest and he stopped where he was and dropped, coughing.

"And you are annoying." Yori said as she moved forwards towards him but a large bark made her stop, Akamaru dashed forwards and grabbed his friend and master by his hood and dragged him out of harms way before Yori could reach him.

Shouting from the hallway made everyone but Naruto turn around, women were standin in the doorway with weapons at the ready.

"Split up, half stay here and the rest defend the entrance!" Sasuke shouted and many of the Sand shinobi turned and headed for the women.

Sakura was kneeling by Kiba's side, her hands glowing green as she healed him up as best as she could. She looked up at Sasuke who was standing at tthe ready to defend them "She was aiming to kill." she said with horror.

"Do you believe me now?" Yori piped up from a crossed the room.

"No. You are lying, Hinata would never ever harm her friends-this is all you!"

"You're half correct actually-which is surprising for someone who isn't very intelligent. You are right when you say that Hinata wouldn't do this. This isn't Hinata."

"What do you mean?" Naruto said slowly.

"I mean that when Hinata came to me she was dying due to the poisoning by Rizu and when I tried to fix that little problem she healed her right away and told me to find another way. I thought the little chit was going to bite her own tongue off to prove a point." Yori chuckled "But I found a different way-lucky for her-but I had to refresh all of her chakra at once and that takes it's toll on one's mind and soul."

Naruto didn't say anything and Sakura gasped behind him.

"Ah I see the pink haired girl has figured it out-but of course you are still trying. No matter, let me spell it out for you." Yori almost sounded kind as her lips turned up, "You see, Hinata Hyuuga had so much potential but she was forever held down by that infuriating gentility that she clung to so hard. I needed a solider not a saint-so I erased her."

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Hello loves! I just got home from an all night grad night thing so i'm exhausted. So if there are any spelling errors or bits of sentences that don't make any sense please tell me because I'm all blurry. Anyways the story is beginning to come to a close, after I finish this tale I will move onto a Kakasaku fic that has been rattling around in my head for quite some time.**

**Anyways, **

**Please read and review!**

**-LittleMoonLover- **


	20. Chapter 20: Frenzy

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. I do own any OC's

* * *

Chiaka lay limply hanging from her bindings and stared blankly at the sleeping woman a crossed from her. They had brought Rizu in a day and a half ago and taken Hinata with them, at first Chiaka had been guiltily relieved, but when she'd tried to talk to Rizu the woman had just babbled incoherently, her normally confident and vibrant self seemingly completely gone. Yori had broken something in the woman that she loved and over the past day Chiaka had tried to bring her back but to no avail. Whenever the women who Yori was controlling came in to feed them Rizu would panic and begin screaming the most horrible scream and only Chiaka's voice seemed to calm the woman down.

Chiaka had thought that if she just talked to Rizu then that would bring her back but after an entire day of croaking comforts at the woman she had come to the realization that the Rizu who had been so dazzling was gone-marred forever by whatever Yori had subjected her to.

She'd stopped talking after that except for when the women came in to feed and wash her twice a day.

Rock grinded against rock and Chiaka tensed, her eyes moving lazily over to the wall which was opening. It's only been two hours since they fed her, she thought as she did her best to sit up straight and look as menacing as possible. But the person who stepped through the rock was the last person she ever expected to see, Gaara the Kazekage stepped through the wall-his red hair shining in the dim candle light. Chiaka stared at him in shock.

"Where the hell have you been?" she said lowly as the Kazekage took in the scene "Where the hell have you guys been?" she said louder this time with her voice ending on a sob. "You're too late! You bastards you didn't make it in time to save either one of them!" She threw herself against her shackles and chains.

The noise caused Rizu to stir and the woman immediately began to whimper and cry, Chiaka composed herself but continued to stare at the Kazekage who had turned towards Rizu and was reaching for her causing her whimpering noises to become louder "Don't touch her, she doesn't like to be touched." Chiaka said harshly.

"Where is Hyuuga san?" Gaara asked drawing his hand back.

"Untie me and I'll show you." Chiaka locked eyes with the Kazekage and tried to communicate her need to stand and help.

Gaara nodded once and his shinobi swarmed into the small space and began to pick the many locks on her full body shackles. When she was free they helped her stand, her legs which has been in a stationary position for the last week groaned painfully as she leaned against the kazekage's sister Temari.

The shinobi then moved to unlock Rizu who began to scream again, pressing herself back against the wall trying to get away from them.

"Let me." Chiaka said holding out her hand for the lock picking kit when they didn't immediately hand it over she reached over and jerked it out of their hands and knelt down on the ground-a little wobbly-and began to pick the thick padlock on Rizu's hands whilst murmuring soft words to the woman.

"How are we going to get her out of here if no one can touch her?" a man with purple stripes on his face piped up from the doorway.

"I'm going to carry her." Chiaka replied as if it were obvious.

"Please, you can barely stand." the man shot back and Chiaka looked over her shoulder at him and silenced him with a look.

The shackles fell to the floor a moment later and Chiaka gently picked up a still babbling Rizu and stood. She wobbled for only a moment but somehow was able to straighten, Rizu curled into Chiaka's chest and murmured into the dirty cloth of her tunic.

"Well?" she asked the ninja's around her "Are we just going to stand here all day staring or are we going to go save Hinata?"

"Lead the way." Gaara gestured to the door and Chiaka began to walk with wobbly steps.

"Do you think she even knows where she's going?" Kankuro murmured not so quietly to Temari who elbowed him in the ribs. In truth Chiaka had no idea where they were headed, she had never been to this place before and didn't know her way around. But like hell was she just going to sit in that cell while her friend was suffering. So Chiaka figured if she walked towards the center of the place then they would eventually run into something. And they weren't wrong, after five minutes they were greeted with a flying Kunai which Gaara deflected with his sand.

Chaos erupted around them as women filled the hallway fighting other sand shinobi, "Gaara-sama!" one of them called as she swept a woman's feet out from under her "the Hokage-sama and the other Konoha ninjas are in the room down the hall! From what I can tell something is going very wrong!"

Gaara turned to his Shinobi "Help them hold back these women, Temari, Kankuro with me." Chiaka followed, Rizu's head lolling against her shoulder as she stared blankly at the passing wall.

They fought their way past lunging women, Chiaka doing her best to avoid the approaching women was protected by a wall of sand that lashed out at nearby enemies. "The door is over here!" she called and Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro joined her. The large double doors were already open and they stepped inside, the scene that greeted them made Chiaka gasp.

Naruto was on his knees on the ground staring blankly ahead, Sakura was on her knees next to him trying to talk to him-her hands were glowing green and she was pressing them to a man's chest. The rest of the Konoha ninjas were staring in horror as the Uchiha fellow, whom Chiaka had only seen once or twice when Sakura would come down to talk to her, was locked in fierce combat with none other than Hinata who fought with such ferocity that Chiaka had trouble believing that it was even here.

What had happened in the day since they had taken her?

* * *

Sasuke skidded back onto the ground and wiped the blood off of his jaw, it was unbelievable! She was on par with his skills if not his strength! He didn't understand how she had come to be so strong, he'd seen her spar with her teammates and she hadn't shown this refined ruthlessness ever.

"Naruto!" He called over his shoulder but his best friend didn't reply, damn it-it was just like the idiot to retreat in on himself when something bad happened. "Sakura you might want to snap him out of it-like now!" Sasuke yelled at his girlfriend and deflected a kunai that was aimed for his heart with his sword.

Shit, sorry Hinata. He thought as he performed the jutsu seals for Susanoo but was interrupted by tiny chakra needles embedding themselves in his forearm. The needles felt like tiny little bee stings and he gripped his arm and grunted as his chakra tried to push out the invasion of someone else's chakra.

"Hinata wake up!" he called out to her in vain but she moved towards him with lightning speed, her fists began to glow with her own special technique called twin lion fists. He cursed under his breath as his sharingan picked up her quick movements and he was barely able to dodge her attack, his clothing getting singed as he rolled out of the way.

"Surprised are you?" Yori's voice floated through the room "Never thought such a gentle person could be capable of this huh?"

"That's not Hinata." a voice said from behind Sasuke, he didn't dare turn around but he could hear Naruto standing.

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Hinata is so strong * D* errr... well... she's not really Hinata but still. **

**How do you like the Uchiha/Hyuuga showdown? I thought it was needed seeing as they are the two most powerful clans in Konoha and all that jazz. **

**Not much else to tell about this chapter-there will be some major action next chapter so look forward to it! **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


	21. Chapter 21: Because I Love You

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Any OC's belong to me.

* * *

Naruto watched with horror as Hinata moved in for them but was cut off by Sasuke blocking her attack expertly. Something inside Naruto jumped, he didn't want his best friend and the woman that he cared about fighting. A nasty little voice inside his head whispered to him "_Why not? It would solve the problem-thats not even your beloved Hinata. She's gone gone gone!"_ it sang merrily and Naruto gritted his teeth. Sakura was saying something to him but it sounded like white noise, everything was buzzing and the only thing that he could hear was the nasty little voice.

He wanted to lay down and give up-it seemed like the easier thing to do even though he knew a Hokage never give up. An errant thought floated through his mind, her voice wafting on a memory "_I never go back on my word, because that is also my ninja way." _she'd said that to him many times to snap him out of despair, the last time she'd said it to him was on the eve before he was named Hokage and he was absolutely panicky about it, she'd placed her warm hands on both sides of his face and smiled gently and said their nindo. It'd filled him with peace and courage-as it had after Neji died and he'd thought about giving up then. My life is not only one. The words blared through his head almost as if the Kyuubi-who had long been gone from his body-was yelling them at him.

And then just as suddenly as it came the white noise was gone, he could hear everything that was happening around them. People were shouting and the sound of iron hitting iron could be heard as people fought in the hallways, Sakura was right next to him telling him not to give up, Kiba was calling him names and Shino was silently watching everything with a furrowed brow.

He stood shakily as Yori was spoke, anger boiling up in his chest "Thats not Hinata." he said loud enough for everyone to hear "But Hinata isn't gone, she's in there somewhere-you can't just 'erase' someone like her. It's impossible. I promised her that I would make her better and I don't go back on my word," he pointed a thumb at himself "Because that is my ninja way."

* * *

"Hinata, Hinata wake up." Hinata mumbled something sleepily and was yanked from her soft dreams by an unforgiving hand. "It's time to wake up!"

Hinata's eyes opened and she saw Kushina standing in front of her, flanked by many familiar faces.

"Neji-nii-san!" Hinata crowed with joy as she jumped up and hugged him hard, he stood before her dressed in white with a forehead free of any marks.

"Hello Hinata-sama." the man patted her head "You've grown!"

She was surrounded by people that she knew "Inoichi-san! Shikaku-san!" She bowed deeply to Ino and Shikamaru's fathers who had died during the war. A blond haired man who resembled the man that she loved placed an arm around Kushina "Hokage-sama." she said and bowed to him.

"Call me Minato, please." he said with a gentle smile.

Hinata looked with wonder at the people around her with wonder "Am I… dead?" she asked quietly.

Neji winced "Sort of… well almost. Your mind has reclused to the deepest recesses of your essence and well… it's hard to get back."

"You have a choice, Hinata, as there are always choices in life." Kushina stepped forward "You may choose to live, even if living means facing the many hardships that you will face now and in the future. Or you may choose to come with us and remain with us forever in the spirit world."

Hinata pressed a closed fist to her chest as she thought about it, even though she was only twenty she felt world weary-she had seen so much in her young life that her soul was tired. Maybe it was best that she went with them…

"Hinata!" "Hinata-chan!" voices filtered through the whiteness, Sakura's, Sasuke's, Kiba's, and Shino's voices were calling for her and loudest of all was Naruto's voice-at the sound of their son's despair Kushina and Minato winced visibly.

"I-I…" she said indecisively.

"Would you like to see what is going on?" Inoichi asked and she nodded, he waved his hand and a large screen opened up and a scene played before her eyes. She could see Sasuke standing at the defensive with his sword drawn-but her eyes moved past him quickly to see Naruto who was standing with clenched fists.

Hinata would never get over the jump her heart always had when her eyes met his face-he had grown from boyhood quickly and his handsome features and broad shoulders had replaced the babyish stubborness that had clung to him until his mid-teens. A bit of stubble marked his chin and Hinata clucked inwardly, she'd always had to remind him to shave-he had probably forgotten all about it since she'd been kidnapped.

Sasuke stepped aside and Naruto moved upwards and looked right at the screen "Hinata I know you're in there… I'm not gonna fight you-no way in hell… but I can't let you harm people you care about."

"W-what does he mean?" She turned to the people behind her but they were silent.

Suddenly the screen shook and lunged for Naruto, she saw pale white hands dart out and grab his vest and throw him like a ragdoll. She heard herself scream as he hit a pillar and fall to the floor.

"What is going on?" She turned to the people behind her but only Kushina remained. The woman's expression was a sad one.

"With the absence of your mind, Yori is able to control the mindless being that your body is at the moment. Without you to inhabit your body Hinata this is what you become."

"T-those are my hands?" Hinata asked with disbelief as Naruto was tossed around by her tiny pale white hands.

"That is your body Hinata." the red haired woman said emotionlessly.

Naruto was speaking to her, his was on his knees with his shoulders erect as he looked at her "Hinata…" he said and his words reverberated through Hinata "I know that you are in there. I know it. And I won't fight you-never ever would I want to harm you," the sound of a Kunai being unsheathed sent shivers down Hinata's spine she inherently knew that it was she who had drawn it. "Because I love you." the words sent a pulse through the room as the Kunai flashed.

"Nooo!" Hinata screamed and the world was ripped away, "I will not let this happen! Send me back!" she turned to Kushina who grinned.

"Right-o." she said and placed a hand over Hinata's forehead "You're going to have to fight for control but I know you can do it." she pushed the Hyuuga and sent her flying back into the world of the living.

* * *

Naruto watched as the Kunai sped towards his heart gripped by the woman he loved and he squeezed his eyes shut, everyone around him screamed and he waited for the pain that didn't come. Slowly he opened one eye, keeping the other squeezed tightly, then the other eye came open as he stared with disbelief at what was in front of him. Hinata was still holding the Kunai and inch from his heart but she was breathing heavily with tears rolling down her pale white cheeks.

"N-Naruto take the Kunai away from me." she forced out and relief welled up in Naruto's chest he plucked the Kunai from her grasp and tossed it away from himself.

"It's hard to maintain control… but this is my body." she said firmly and forced herself to stand up straight with shaking legs.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled and stood pulling her in for a hard hug, his throat thickening with unshed tears.

"It's okay to cry Naruto!" Kiba called jeeringly from where he was sitting. But Naruto just flipped him off and buried his face in Hinata's hair.

"N-Naruto? It's not safe yet please release me." Hinata said into his chest but he just held on even harder. "No way in hell." he murmured into her hair.

"That's impossible. There is no way her mind could have survived." Yori was standing in front of her throne now.

"It's not impossible." Naruto replied finally releasing a still shaking Hinata, he grasped her hand in his and turned towards Yori.

"Why?" Sneered Yori "Is it through the power of love that she was able to break through the control?"

"No, although that would be a whole lot more poetic since I am such a great guy." he rubbed the back of his head and grinned at everyone like an idiot.

"Naruto!" Sakura's angry voice came from behind them prompting him to get on with it.

"Oh, right! Anyways Hinata was able to break through your control because she's a total badass and you underestimated her." he finished and everyone was silent, hoping that there was more.

"Thats it?" everyone groaned and he grinned and nodded "Yep!"

Yori shook her head with disgust, how had this idiot ever become Hokage? "Enough of this idiocracy, ladies it's time to go deal with-"

"Yori!" Iru stepped into the chamber with Kila in tow, they were both cut and bruised but altogether in one piece.

For the first time since they had arrived Yori actually looked surprised "Iru? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm here to stop you Yori, this hatred had gone on long enough."

"No it won't be enough until every single Hyuuga knows the pain that I have felt. They took our mother away from us Iru how can you side with them?!" Yori shouted at him.

"Because hate breeds hate little sister, I should have done a better job of teaching you that. I failed you." Iru looked at his wife and she slid a supporting hand through his "But it's not too late."

"Yes it is." Yori said quietly "I can't live in a world where the Hyuuga hurt others. I can't live in a world where they are able to just annihilate an entire group of people on a whim."

"It won't be like that, not anymore." Hinata's quiet voice rose above the murmurs floating through the room, she looked at Yori with a mixture of pity and understanding "I'm going to change it." she looked at Naruto and smiled "And Naruto is going to change it too, after all he promised Neji-nii-and we never go back on our word."

Naruto looked down at her and pride swelled inside of his chest, and a breeze ruffled both of their hair and he could almost hear his parent's laughter on it.

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Wow that was an action packed chapter, the last few chapters were pretty sparse I hope that this makes up for it. I'm trying not to rush to the ending but I'm super excited so I can't help it! **

**I adore the "Because I love you" line and it means so much to me, it's why I first started to ship Naruhina in the first place. **

**Anyways before I get all sappy please look forward to the next couple of chapters because I'm going to end it soon, also there will be a smut chapter at the very end and if you do not wish you read it you don't have to! **

**Please Read & Review!**

**-LittleMoonLover-**


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